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INTED BY I 



PRESENTED 



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MEMOIR 



OF 



THE LIFE 



OF THE 



Rev, Francis Av'Baker, 

Priest of the Congregation of St. Paul. 



BYe 



REV. A/\F/HEWIT. 



SEVENTH EDITION. 



NEW YORK : 
THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO., 

No. 9 Barclay Street. 
1889. 



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1-] MEMOIR. 



Francis A. Baker was born in Baltimore, March 30,1820. 
The name given him in baptism was Francis Asbnry, after 
the Methodist bishop of that name ; but when he became a 
Cathohc he changed it to Francis Aloysius/in honor of St. 
Francis de Sales and St. Aloysins, to both of whom he had 
a special devotion, and both of whom he resembled in many 
striking points of character. 

He was of mixed German and English descent, and combined 
the characteristics of both races in his temperament of mind 
and body. He had also some of the Irish and older American 
blood in his veins. His paternal grandfather, William Baker, 
emigrated from Germany at an early age to Baltimore, where 
he married a yonng lady of Irish origin, and became a wealthy 
merchant. His maternal grandfather, the Rev. John Dickens, 
was an Englishman, a Methodist preacher, who resided chiefly 
in Philadelphia. His grandmother was a native of Georgia. 
During the great yellow-fever epidemic in Philadelphia, 
Mr. Dickens remained at his post, and his wife fell a victim 
to the disease, with her eldest daughter. His father was Dr 
Samuel Baker, of Baltimore, and his mother. Miss Sarah 
Dickens. Dr. Baker was an eminent physician and medical 
lecturer, holding the honorable positions of Professor of 
Materia Medica in the University of Maryland, and Pres- 
ident of the Baltimore Medico-Chirurgical Society. There 



14 MEMOIR OF 

was a striking similarity in the character of Dr. Baker and 
his son Francis. The writer of an obituary notice of the 
father^ in the Baltimore AthencBum^ tells iis that his early 
preceptors admired " the balance of the faculties of his mind," 
and that " his classmates were attached to him for his integ- 
rity and affectionate manners." In another passage, the same 
winter would seem to be describing Francis Baker, to those 
who knew him alone, and have never seen the original of 
the sketch. "The style of conversation with which Dr. 
Baker interested his friends, his patients, or the stranger, 
was marked with an unaffected simplicity. Even when he 
was most fluent and communicative, no one could suspect 
aim of an ambition to shine. He spoke to give utterance 
to pleasing and useful thoughts on science, religion, and 
general topics, as if his chief enjoy:nent was to diffuse the 
charms of his own tranqitillity . In social intercourse, his 
dignity was the natural attitude of his virtue. On the part 
of the trifling it requi^^ed but little discernment to perceive 
the tacit warning that vulgar familiarity would find nothing 
congenial in him. He never engrossed conversation, and 
seemed always desirous of obtaining information by eliciting 
it f 'om others. Whether he listened or spoke, his coun- 
tenance, receiving impressions readily from his inind, was an 
expressive index of the tone of his various emotions and 
thoughts. The conduct of Dr. Baker as a physician, a 
Christian, and a citizen, w^as a mirror, reflecting the beauti- 
fuj image of goodness in so distinct a form as to leave none 
to hesitate about the sincerity and purity of his feelino;s. It 
therefore constantly reminded many of ' the wisdom tiiat is 
from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy 
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, v/itliout 
partiality, and without hypocrisy.' The friendly sympathy 
and anxiety which he evinced in the presence of human 
suffering attached all classes of his patients to him, and he 
was very happy in his benevolent tact at winning the affcc- 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 15 

tion of cbildren, even in their sickness." Dr. Baker ^as a 

member of the Methodist Church, and an intimate friend 

of the celebrated and eloquent preacher Summerneld. He 

was not one, however, of the enthusiastic sort, but sober, 

quiet, and reserved. He never went through any period of 

religious excitement himself, or endeavored to practise on 

the susceptibilities of his children. He said of himself, as 

one of his intimate friends testifies, " that he did not know the 

period when he became religious, so gradually was his Kfe 

regulated by the spiritual truths which enlightened his mind 

from childhood." He had no hostile feelings toward the 

Catholic Church, and was a great admirer and warm friend 

of the Sisters of Charity, many of whom I have heard 

frequently speak of him in terms of the most affectionate 

respect. His benevolence toward the poor was unbounded, 

and he was in fact endeared to all classes of the community, 

without exception, in Baltimore. Francis Baker had a very 

great respect for his father, and was very fond of talking of 

him to me, during the first period of our acquaintance, when 

his ea.rK- recollections were fresh and recent in his mind. 

Of Lis mother he had but a faint remembrance, having 

been deprived of her at the age of seven years. It is easy to 

judge of her character, however, from that of her children, 

and of Ler sister, who was a mother to her orphans from the 

time of her death until her own life was ended among them. 

Mrs. Baker's brother, the Hon. Asbury Dickens, is well 

known as having been for nearly half a century the Secretary 

of the Senate of the United States, which position he held 

until his death, which occurred at an advanced age a few 

vears s'lice. 
«/ 

Dr. Baker had four sons and two daughters. Only one of 
them, Dr. William George Baker, ever married, and he died 
without children : so that Dr. Samuel Baker left not a single 
grandchild after him to perpetuate his name or family — and of 
his children, one daughter only survives Three of his sons 



16 MEMOIR OF 

werc physicians of great promise, whicli they did not live to ful- 
fil. Francis was his third son, and the one who most resembled 
him in character. Of his boyhood I know little, except that liis 
companions at school who grew up to manhood, and preserved 
their acquaintance with him, were extremely attached to him. 
One of them passed an evening and night in our house, as 
the guest of F. Baker, but a few months before his death, 
with great pleasure to both. I have also heard some of the 
good Sisters of Charity speak of having known the little 
Frank Baker as a boy, and mention the fact that he was very 
fond of visiting them. I am sure that his childhood was an 
extremely happy one until the period of his father's death. 
This event took place in October, 1835, when Francis was in 
his sixteenth year, and in the fiftieth year of Dr. Baker's life. 
It was very sudden and unexpected, and threw a shadow of 
grief and sadness over the future of his children, which was 
deepened by the subsequent untimely decease of the two 
eldest sons, Samuel and William. 

Francis was entered at Princeton College soon after his 
father's death, and graduated there with the class of 1839. 
I am not aware that his college life had any remarkable 
incidents. He was not ambitious of distinguishing him.selt, 
or inclined to apply himself to very severe study. I believe, 
however, that his standing was respectable, and his conduct 
regular and exemplary. He was not decidedly religious in 
his early youth. Methodism had no attraction for him, and 
the Calvinistic preaching at Princeton was repugnant to his 
reason and feelings. Whatever religious impressions he had 
in childhood were chiefly those produced by the Catholic 
Church, whose services he was fond of attending ; but .hese 
were not deep or lasting. The early death of his father, and 
the consequent responsibility and care thrown upon him as the 
male head of the family, first caused him to reflect deeply, and 
to seek for soine decided religious rule of hib own life and 
conduct, and finally led him to join the Protestant Episcopal 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 17 

communioii, and to resolve to prepare liimself for the ministry. 
All the members of his family joined the same communion, 
and were baptized with him, in St. Paul's Church, by 
the rector of the parish, Dr. Wyatt. This event took place 
in 1841, or '42. Soon afterward, Mr. Baker formed an 
acquaintance with a young man, a candidate for orders and an 
inmate of the family of Dr. Whittingham, the Bishop of Mary- 
land, which was destined to ripen into a most endearing and 
life-long friendship, and to have a most important influence on 
his subsequent history. This gentleman was Dwight Edwards 
Lyman, a son of the Eev. Dr. Ljnuan a respectable Presby- 
terian minister, of the same age with Francis Baker, and an 
ardent disciple of the school of John Henry Newman. At 
the time of his baptism, Mr. Baker was only acquainted with 
church principles as they were taught by Dr. Wyatt, who 
was an old-fashioned High Churchman. The intercourse 
which he had with Mr. Lyman was the principal occasion 
of introducing him to an acquaintance with the Oxford 
movement, into which he very soon entered with his whole 
mind and heart. In 1842, Mr. Lyman was sent to St. James's 
College, near Hagerstown, where he remained several years, 
receiving orders in the interval. During this time, Mr. Baker 
kept up a frequent and most confidential correspondence with 
him, which is full of liveliness and humor in its earlier 
stages, but becomes more grave and serious as both advanced 
nearer to the time of their ordination. It continued during 
the entire period of their ministry in the Episcopal Chrn'ch, 
and during the whole subsequent life of Mr. Baker, closing 
with a very playful letter written by the latter, a few days 
before his last illness. In one of these letters, he acknowledges 
his obligations to Mr. Lyman as the principal instrument 
of making him acquainted with Catholic principles, in these 
warm and affectionate words : " I do not know whether 
you are aware of the advantage I derived from you in the 
earlier part of our acquaintance, by reason of your greater 



18 MEMOIR OF 

femiliarity with the Catholic system as exhibited in the 
A?^glica7i Church. The influence you exerted was of a kind 
of which I can hardly suppose you to have been conscious ; 
yet I am sure you will be gratified to think it was effectual, 
as I believe, to fix me more firmly in the system for which I 
had long entertained so profound a reverence and affection. 
These are benefits which I cannot forget, and which (if there 
were not other reasons of which I need not speak) must always 
keep a place for you in the heart of your unworthy friend." 

The nature of the later correspondence between these two 
friends, and their mutual influence on each other, will appear 
later in this narrative. There are ft^iendships which are 
formed in heaven, and in looking back upon that which grew 
up between these two young men of congenial spirit, and in 
which I was also a sharer in a subordinate degree, I cannot 
but admire the benignant ways of Divine Providence, by 
which those strands which afterward bound our existence 
together so closely were first interwoven. I had myself met 
Mr. Lyman, some years before this, and felt the charm of his 
glowing and enthusiastic advocacy of principles which were 
just beginning to germinate in my own mind. Soon after 
Mr. Lyman's removal to Hagerstown, I made the acquaint- 
ance of Mr. Baker, a circumstance which the latter mentions 
in his next letter to his friend in these words, which I trust I 
may be pardoned for quoting — 

" The Bishop's family have a young man staying with them 
(Mr. H.), a convert to the Church, and one, I believe, of great 
promise. He was a Congregationalist minister, and Eev. Mr. 
B. read me a letter from him, dated about a month ago, be- 
fore his coming into the Church, the tone of which was far 
more Catholic than that of many (alas !) of those who have 
been partakers of the holy treasures to be found only in 
her bosom. Mr. B. tells me that Church principles are silently 
spreading in the North, among the sects, in this place, 1 
believe that a spirit has been raised which one would hardly 



BEV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 19 

imagine on looking at the surface of things, though that i? 
tronbled enough." 

This letter was dated April 22, 1843. 

I had just arrived in Baltimore, at the invitation of Dr 
Whittingham, the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, 
and been received as a candidate for orders in his diocese. 
Mr. Baker, who was also a candidate for orders, lived just 
opposite the Bishop's residence, in Courtlandt street, and was 
pursuing his theological studies in private. I lived in the 
Bishop's house, and I think I met Mr. Baker there on the 
first evening of my arrival. We were nearly of the same age, 
and soon found that our tastes and opinions were very conge- 
nial to each other. Of course, I returned his visit very soon, 
and I became at once very intimate with his family. It was 
a charming place and a delightful circle. Francis, as the eld 
est brother, was the head of the house. His aunt. Miss Dick- 
ens, fulfilled the office of a mother to her orphaned nephews 
and nieces with winning grace and gentleness. A youngei 
brother, Alfred, then about eighteen years of age, was a1 
home^ pursuing his medical studies. Two sisters completed 
the number of the family, all bound together in the most de 
voted and tender love, all alike in that charm of character 
which is combined from a fervent and genial spirit of reli- 
gion, amiability of temper, and a high-toned culture of mind 
and manners, chastened and subdue.d by trial and sorrow. I 
must not pass by entirely without mention another inmate of 
the family, whose good-humored, joyous countenance was 
always the first to greet me at the door — little Caroline, the 
last of the family servants, who was manumitted as soon as 
she arrived at a proper age, always devotedly attached to her 
young master, and afterward one of the most eager and de- 
lighted spectators at his ordination as a Catholic priest. 

The house was one of those places where every article of 
furm'ture and the entire spirit that pervades its arrangement 
Bpeaks eloquently of the past family history, and recalls the 



20 MEMOIR or 

memory of its departed members and departed scenes of do- 
mestic happiness. Dr. Baker had left his children a compe- 
tent bnt moderate fortune, which was managed with the 
utmost prudence by Francis, who possessed at twenty-one all 
the wisdom of a man of fifty. There was nothing of the 
splendor and luxury of wealth to be seen in the household, 
but a modest simplicity and propriety, a home-like comfort, 
and that perfection of order and arrangement, regulated by a 
pure and exquisite taste, which is far more attractive. Mr. 
Baker's home was always the mirror of his mind. In later 
years, when he liyed in his own rectory, although his family 
circle had lost two of its precious links, the same charm per- 
vaded every nook and corner of the home of the survivors, 
the young and idolized pastor and his two sisters. His study 
at St. Luke's rectory was the beau ideal of a clergyman's 
sanctuary of study and prayer, after the Church of England 
model ; with something added, which betokened a more re- 
cluse and sacerdotal spirit, and a more Catholic type of 
devotion. One might have read in it Mr. Baker's character 
at a glance, and might have divined that the inhabitant of 
that room was a perfect gentleman, a man of the most pure 
intellectual tastes, a pastor completely absorbed in the duties 
of his state, a recluse in his life, and very Catholic in the ten- 
dencies and aspirations of his soul. 

Of Mr. Baker's family, only one sister has survived him. 
Alfred Baker died first. Like his brother, he was a model 
of manly beauty, although he did not in the least resemble 
him in form or feature. Francis Baker, as all who ever saw 
him know, was remarkably handsome. Those who only 
knew him after he reached mature age, and remember him 
only as a priest, will associate with his appearance chiefly 
that impress of sacerdotal dignity and mildness, of placid, 
intellectual composure, of purity, nobility, and benignity of 
character, which was engraven or rather sculptured in his 
face and attitude. Dressed in the proper costmne, he might 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 21 

have been taken as a living study for a Fatlier of the Church, 
a holy hermit of the desert, or a mediseval bishop. He was 
cast ill an antique and classic mould. There was not a trace 
of tho man of modern times or of the man of the world about 
h'm. His countenance and manner in late years also bore 
traces of the fatiguing, laborious life which he led, and the 
hard, rough work to which he was devoted. On account of 
these things, and because he was so completely a priest and 
a religious, one could scarcely think of admiring him as a 
man. His portrait was never painted, and the photographs 
of him which were taken were none of them very successful, 
and most of them mere caricatures. An ambrotype in profile 
was taken at Chicago for Mr. Healy the artist, which is ad- 
mirable, and from this the only good photographs have been 
taken ; but the adequate image of Father Baker, as he ap- 
peared at the altar, or when his face was lit up in preaching 
the Divine word, will live only in the memory of those who 
knew him. At the period of which I speak, he had just at- 
tained the maturity of youthful and manly beauty, which 
was heightened in its effect by his perfect dignity and grace 
of manner. His brother Alfred was cast in a slighter mould, 
and had an almost feminine loveliness of aspect, figure, and 
character. He was as modest and pure as a young maiden, 
with far more vivacity of feature and manner than his brother, 
and a more vivid and playful temperament. There was noth- 
ing, however, efieminate in his character or countenance. 
He was full of talent, high-spirited, generous and chivalrous 
in his temper, conscientious and blameless in his religious and 
moral conduct. He graduated at the Catholic College of St. 
Mary's in Baltimore, and was a great favorite of the late 
Archbishop Eccleston and several others of the Catholic cler- 
gy. His High Church principles had a strong dash of Catho- 
licity in them, and he used often to speak of the ^ignominious 
name, Protestant," which is prefixed to the designation of the 
Episcopal Church in this country. He was a devoted admirer 



22 * MEMOIR OF 

of Mr. Newman, and followed him, like so many otliei*s, to 
the verge of tlie Catholic CLurch, but drew back, startled and 
perplexed, when he passed over. Two or three years after the 
time I am describing, he began the practice of his profession, 
with brilliant prospects. The family removed to a larger 
and more central residence, for his sake, near St. Paul's 
Church, where Francis was Assistant Minister. All things 
seemed to smile and promise fair, but this beautiful bud had 
a worm in it. A slow and lii^gering but fatal attack of phthi- 
sis seized him, just as he was beginning to succeed in his 
professional career. His brother accompanied him to Bermu- 
da, but the voyage was rather an additional suffering than a 
benefit, and on the 9th of April, 1852. he died. It was Good 
Friday. He had prayed frequently that he might die on that 
day, and before his departure, he called his brother to him, 
made a general confession, desired him to pronounce over him 
the form of absolution prescribed in tlie English Prayer-Book, 
and received the communion of the Episcopal Church. These 
acts were sacramentaUy valueless, but I trust, without pre- 
suming to decide positively on a secret matter which God 
alone can judge, that his intention was right before God, and 
his error a mistake of judgment without perversity of wilL 
His brother afterward felt deeply solicitous lest he might 
have been himself blamable for keeping him in the Episcopal 
communion, and grieved that he had died out of the visible 
communion of the Catholic Church. Still, as he was conscious 
of his own integrity of purpose, he tranquillized his mind with 
the hope that his brother had died in spiritual communion 
with the true Church and in the charity of God, and endeavored 
to aid him, as far as he was still within the reach of human 
assistance, by having many masses offered for the repose of 
his soul. 

Miss Dickens died a little before Alfred, and Elizabeth 
Baker died some time after her brother became a Catholic, but 
before his ordination. 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 23 

I return now to the period when Mr. Baker and all these 
members of his family were living a retired and happy life 
together in the home on Courtlandt street. 1 remember this 
time with peculiar pleasure. Mr. Baker, whom I always 
called Frank, as he was usually called by his friends, p^artly 
from the peculiar affection they felt for him, and also because 
of its appropriateness as an epithet of his character, went 
every day with me once or twice to prayers ; and every day 
we walked together. "When the pecuHar, tinkling bell of 
old St. Paul's, which will be remembered by many a reader 
of these pages, gave notice of divine service there, we resorted 
in company to that venerable and unique church. It was 
spacious and ecclesiastical, though not regularly beautiful in 
its architecture. A basso-relievo adorned its architrave, and 
a bright gilded cross graced its tall tower. It had a hand- 
some altar of white marble, an object of our special pride 
and devotion, with the usual reading-desk and pulpit rising 
behind it. The pulpit was a light and graceful structure, sur- 
mounted by a canopy which terminated in a cross, and having 
another cross surrounded by a glory emblazoned on its 
ceiling, just over the preacher's head. The door was in the 
rear of the pulpit, which stood far out from the chancel wall, 
and in the door was a beautiful transparency of the Ecce 
Homo, lighted from the chancel window, which had an Ailan- 
thus behind it, causing a pleasing illusion in the mind of the 
beholder that the dirty brick pavement of the court-yard 
was a pretty rural garden. The chancel was large and 
imposing. An episcopal chair, surmounted by a mitre, 
formed one of its conspicuous ornaments, and two seven, 
branched gilded gas-burners stood on the chancel rail, which 
were lighted at Evening Prayer, or Vespers, as we were wont 
to call it. In this church, the people all knelt with their 
backs to the altar, and facing the great door, whereat a num- 
ber of us, being scandalized, determined to face about on aU 
occasions and kneel toward the altar, which we did rigidly. 



24 MliMOIR OF 

and in the most impressive manner, to the great annoyance 
of tlie rector. Dr. "Wyatt. The tout enseinhle of St. Paul's 
Chm^ch, especially in the dusk of evening, when the lamps 
were lit, was to a hasty glance quite that of a Catholic 
church. Catholics very frequently came in by mistake, and 
sometimes poor people knelt in the aisles and began saying 
their prayers. Others inquired of the sexton at the door if 
it was a Catholic church, and some persons occupying seats 
near the door, who frequently lieard his negative response 
and his direction to the Cathedral, were led in consequence 
to think, that if St. Paul's were not a Catholic church, they 
too had best follow the sexton's direction and go to the 
Cathedral. Besides the prayers on saints' days, Wednesdays, 
and Fridays, at St. Paul's, there was a week-day com- 
munion service once a month. Dr. Wyatt and his congrega- 
tion were Church people after the type of Bishop Hobart^ 
disposed to sympathize in a great measure with Dr. Pusey 
and the Oxford divines, but in great dread of extravagant 
innovation. The parish was very large, and included among 
its members a considerable portion of the elite of Baltimore 
society. Strange as it may seem, however, outside a certain 
circle of sturdy High Church families, and especially among 
the more worldly class, there was a prevailing sentiment that 
true spiritual religion flourished more in the Methodist than 
in the Episcopal Church. 

Although the mitred chair stood in the chancel, St. Paul's 
was not the bishop's cathedral, and he was not able to take 
in it that position and perform those acts which he felt were 
the proper prerogative of a bishop in the principal church 
of the diocese. The bishops of the Episcopal Church in this 
country are all in the same anomalous position, without cathe- 
drals or strictly episcopal churches, in which, according to 
canon law, the see is properly located, having dependent 
parochial churches affiliated to the mother Church. They 
must either be rectors of parochial churches, by election of 



EEV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 26 

tfhe vestry, or simple parishioners of one of tlieir own subor- 
dinate presbyters, without the right of performing any official 
act, or even sitting in the chancel, except on occasions 
of convention, episcopal visitation, or something of the 
sort. The Bishop of New York was even for many years an 
assistant minister of Trinity Church. Bishop Whittingham 
was determined to remedy this evil, as far as possible, by 
establishing a parish, where his proper place would be con- 
ceded to him voluntarily by the rector and vestry. Accord- 
ingly the Mount Calvary congregation was formed, and began 
to worship in an old grain-warehouse. There we had early 
Morning Prayers, and Evening Prayers on every day wlien 
St. Paul's was closed ; and thither might be seen wending 
their way, rain or shine, the Bishop with a suite of young 
ecclesiastics, gentlemen and ladies of the most respectable 
and cultivated class, and numbers of the more devout people, 
who found a real solace for their souls, amid the trials and 
labors of life, in daily common prayer to God. A little after, 
a more select room was obtained, decorated with a large 
black cross in the end window, and finally a church was 
built. We always met a great many of the Cathedral peo- 
ple, in the morning, going to and from Mass, and they were 
quite astonished at our piety. I have since learned that a 
number of them, observing the two young men who seemed 
to them so different from Protestants in their ways, began 
praying for us, and that a holy priest, F. Chakert, of St. Al- 
phonsus', who died a martyr to his zeal in New Orleans, fre- 
quently said Mass for our conversion. 

In our frequent walks, Frank Baker esid myself usually, by 
a tacit consent, took the direction of some Catholic church. 
Baltimore surpasses every other large town in the United 
States, except perhaps St. Louis, in the relative number, and 
in the dignified, imposing style of its Catholic churches and 
religious institutions. It is a very picturesque and beautifuJ 
city in itself, and one of its most striking foaturas Is tiie 

2 



26 MEMOIR OF 

exterior show of Catholicity which it presents, from the con- 
spicuous position of the numerous Catholic edifices which are 
distributed through the principal parts of the town ; often 
crowning the summits of some of the high eminences with 
which it abounds, so that they are distinctly visible in all 
directions, and their bells resound loudly for a great distance. 
Some of the Protestant churches also, having our ecclesias | 
tical style of architecture, and being even surmounted by th^ , 
cross, fall into the picture as accessories, and add to the 
impression which a stranger taking a coup-cTml of the city 
would receive. The Cathedral, a truly grand building, 
though built in the Moresco style, and suggesting the idea of 
a great mosque in an oriental city, which had been converted 
by some conquering crusader into a Christian temple, with 
its great dome and two towers, each of which is surmounted 
by a gilded cross, queens it majestically over the whole city. 
It has the finest possible situation, on very high ground, with 
a spacious enclosure around it, and a modest, but very appro- 
priate archiepiscopal residence in the rear of the sanctuary, 
fronting on Charles street, the principal street of the court 
end of the town, a little below the chaste and graceful mon- 
ument of white marble erected to the memory of Washington. 
Near by, the Redemptorist Church and Convent of St. 
Alphonsus, the Convent of the Christian Brothers, the large 
and beautiful Convent and garden of the Yisitation Ifuns, 
the Sisters' Orphan Asylum, and the little chapel and 
religious house of the colored Sisters of Providence, are 
clustered together within a very moderate area of territory. 
Taking the Cathedral as a point of departure, you have at 
the distance of about half a mile, in the most densely 
peopled j)art of tte town, St. Mary's Church, and the Sem- 
inary of St. Sulpice, with its extensive gardens of many acres 
in extent. More toward the suburbs, there are the Lazarist 
Church of the Immaculate Conception, and the large Sisters' 
Hospital of Mount Hope, with its extensive grounds. In an 



REV. FRAJS^CIS A. BAKER. 27 

opposite direction, not far fi^om the Cathedral, is Loyola Col- 
lege, to which adjoins the Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius ; 
beyond these, St. John's, and still further, near the borders 
of the town, the quaint and interesting St. James's Church of 
the Redemptorists, with a German Convent of religious ladies. 
In another direction, St. Yincent de Paul's is seen, with its high 
massive tower, and in the same quarter of the t^OTsai, the Car- 
melites have a convent and chapel, the Kedemptorists another 
large church and convent, called St. Michael's, and there 
is also the large and handsome parish church of St. Patrick, 
with its high altar of green marble. Following the outer 
circle of the city toward the harbor and fort, and returning 
to a point in line with St. Alphonsus', we have the Church 
of the Holy Cross, St. Joseph's, and St. Peter's, the latter of 
Vhich has a congregation composed in great measure of con- 
verts. The deep and heavy bell of the Cathedral is repeat- 
edly heard sending forth its booming notes at dijfferent hours 
i)f the day, answered by St. Alphonsus' and St. Vincent 
de Paul's, while the other bells take up the refrain in the 
distance, and the smaller convent bells throw in from time 
to time, at Angelus, Yespers, or Compline, their silvery, tink- 
ling notes. These Catholic sounds are heard at intervals from 
morning till night, and the bells of some of the Protestant 
churches join in also, on many days during the week, ringing 
for prayers. The Catholic traditions of Baltimore and 
Maryland, interwoven with their existence from the first, the 
memory of Charles Carroll of CarroUton, of Archbishops 
Carroll and Eccleston, and of many other distinguished 
Marylanders among the Catholic clergy, and, lastly, the large 
Catholic population, and the wealth, education, and social 
position of a large class of the members of the Church, who 
have always mingled freely in society and intermarried with 
Protestants, especially those of the Episcopal Church — all 
these and other causes combine to make the Catholic religion 
conspicuous and powerful in Baltimore, and to keep it always 



28 MEMOIR OF 

confronting the adherents of other religions, whichovc'T way 
they turn. It cannot be ignored or kept out of sight and 
mind. It must be battled with or submitted to. Ilence^ 
Protestantism in Baltimore, among the ultra-Protestant sects, 
has borne a character of unusually intense and persistent 
hatred to the Catholic Church; and a suppressed spirit of 
violence has pervaded the lower orders, showing itself ordi- 
narily by slight insults offered to clergymen and religious, but 
occasionally bursting out in scenes of riot and bloodshed, in 
which not merely the rabble took part, but where gentlemen 
were also engaged, and men in high stations lent their influ- 
ence and protection to shield and encourage the lawless 
violators of the peace. 

A number of the Catholic churches here described have 
been built since the year 1842. The general appearance of 
the city, however, and the relative number of Catholic insti- 
tutions, was the same. It was a very interesting place to me from 
its novelty, and very well known to my new friend and com- 
panion, Frank Baker. We perambulated the town and recon- 
noitred all its environs, penetrating into every nook and corner 
where there was the smallest chance of finding something to be 
seen. The Catholic churches underwent a repeated and 
thorough visitation and scrutiny, by turns. An indefinable 
attraction drew us to those sacred places, and made us linger 
and loiter in them without ever growing weary. I know now 
what it was. It was the power of that Sacred Presence which 
once drew the disciples and the multitudes after it, when 
visibly seen, and which now attracts the soul by its invisible 
charm in the Blessed Sacrament. We never went to Mass or 
to any Catholic service, because we were forbidden to do so 
by the bishop. We never sought out any Catholic priests, oi 
encountered any, except twice by accident. We read no 
Catholic bot)ks of controversy or devotion, never knelt to pray 
before the altar, and did not know or suspect where we were 
goin^. But the influence of grace was acting mcst power- 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 29 

fully during those moments in which we were hanging about 
the altar, and unconsciously drinking in its sacred influence. 
Our favorite place was the chapel of St. Mary's College, and 
the Calvary beliind it, where the clergy of the Sulpitian 
Society are buried. This is the sweetest Catholic shrine I 
have ever visited. The Calvary was not open to visitors, but 
for some reason we were never interfered with, although we 
went very often, and remained by the hour. Perhaps our 
guardian angels knew the future, and led us there unwittingly 
to ourselves. Our Lord foresaw it, if they did not, and was 
thinking of the day when one of the two would be there in 
company with all the clergy of the diocese in a spiritual 
retreat, and the day when the other, in that same chapel, 
would be consecrated to the service of the sanctuary."^ 

Many of those who participated in that retreat will recall 
the recollection of it, on reading these pages. 

Archbishop Kenrick, the sage of our American hierarchy 
and one of its saints, that perfect model of a prelate according 
to the ancient type of the purest Catholic times, the pattern 
of ecclesiastical learning, episcopal dignity and vigilance, 
apostolic zeal, sacerdotal gentleness, and Christian humility, 
reminding one of the character ascribed by historians to Pope 
Benedict XIV., sat at the head of his venerable clergy in the 
sanctuary during all the exercises. Of the clergymen present, 
some had been forty years in the priesthood, and one at least 
was ordained by Archbishop Carroll. Some are now bishops, 
or have modestly declined the ofiered mitre. I was then a 
priest, and was assisting F. Walworth in giving the retreat, 
and Mr. Baker was but just received into the Church. He 
came to visit me at the spot where we had passed so many 
pleasant hours in years gone by, and to pay his respects to 
the excellent Sulpitians by whom his brother had been edu- 



* Father Baker was ordained sub-deacon and deacon in that chapel, a- fo"nt days 
before his ordination to the priesthood in the Cathedral. 



80 MEMOIR OF 

cated, and to tlie otlier clergymen whose brother and associate 
he aspired to become in due time. He was welcomed most 
tenderly by the warm-hearted. Sulpitians, and greeted with 
an ardent interest and respect by the clergy and young eccle- 
siastics who were gathered in that sacred retreat of science 
and piety. Several of these good clergymen have since 
spoken of that retreat, which so many circumstances 
combined to make unusually pleasant, as among the most 
cherished recollections of their lives. Since I have been be- 
trayed into this long digression by the associations connected 
with St. Mary's Chapel, I will venture to add one other little 
incident, of which I have been several times reminded by the 
venerable President of Mount St. Mary's College. 

One afternoon, just at sunset, the preacher concluded his 
discourse by a description of the death of a holy priest, con- 
trasting the glory of his successfully accomplished ministry 
with that of the hero in the merely secular and temporal order. 
At the peroration, the parting beams of the sun irradiated a 
tall marble monument over the grave of a well-known 
Sulpitian priest, behind the chancel window, in full view of 
the audience, but unseen by the preacher, and gave an illus- 
tration of his words most affecting and impressive to those 
who witnessed it. It was emblematic, also, of that noble life 
which was to be accomplished and brought to such a beautiful 
close, within twelve short years, by that (J^ar companion and 
friend who was just then on the eve of leaving all to follow 
Christ, and whose generous heart was swelling with the first 
emotions of his divine vocation, long since secretly inspired 
into him while haunting the blessed resting-place of those holy 
priests. But I have anticipated what was yet in the unknown 
and undreamed-of future, when we two ardent and enthusias- 
tic youths were yielding our imaginations to the poetic and 
religious charm which was the precursor of more earnest and 
durable convictions. 

St. Mary's was our favorite resort, but we were also im 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 81 

pressed in a different way by the austere and monastic aspect 

of St. James's, where the Eedemptorist Fathers, then newly 
established, had their convent ; and I remember that we often 
conversed about that order with great curiosity and interest. 
We watched intently the building of St. Alphonsus' Churchy 
and wandered through the sanctuary and sacristy and gar- 
den, and into the shop where the lay-brothers and other arti 
ficers were at work, occasionally, to our great delight, greeted 
by these good brothers, who probably took us for priests, as 
we were then ordained and dressed in long cassocks, with 
their salutation in German, Gelobt sey Jesus Ghristas. 

Another object of great interest to us was a monument to 
the memory of a former pastor, in St. Patrick's Church, bear- 
ing the simple and touching inscription : 

"To THE GOOD De MoRANVILLE." 

This unfeigned tribute of affection to the memory of a good 
and holy priest did more in a few moments to efface from 
my mind the effect of the calumnies I had heard from child- 
hood against the Catholic clergy, than a volume of contro- 
versy could have done. 

Mr. Baker took me also to visit the monument erected to 
Sister Ambrosia by the City of Baltimore. This lady, the 
daughter of the venerable Mrs. Collins, who died at the age 
of nearly^one hundred years, and was one of those who wel- 
comed Mr. Baker most warmly into the Catholic Church, 
and the sister of the Very Rev. Mr. Collins, of Cincinnati, 
was universally regarded as a saint, both by Catholics and 
Protestants. She had been very intimate in Dr. Baker's 
familv, and attended his two elder sons durino; their last 
illness. She fell herself a victim to her charity in attending 
the sick in the hospitals, leaving the sweet fragrance of her 
sanctity to linger in the memories of those who knew her. 

We visited also the graves of those brothers of Mr. Baker 
whose death had produced so great a change in liis character 



S2 MEMOIR OF 

and prospects. Thev were buried in a Methodist grave-yard, 
adjoining the beautiful Green Mount Cemetery. Francis 
had erected a marble tombstone to their memory, on which 
was carved a cross, and the Catholic inscription, Bequiescant 
in pace. When I returned to Baltimore, after my ordination 
to the Catholic priesthood, I revisited the spot, but found the 
cross and prayer had been removed. When I had the oppor- 
tunity of asking Mr. Baker for an explanation of this, he in- 
formed me that he had removed them of his own accord, 
because he thought it an indelicate intrusion on the religious 
sentiments and feelings of those to whom the burial-place 
belonged, to leave there a Catholic inscription. 

Meanwhile we were studying and reading regularly. 
Bishop Whittingham had a very fine and extensive library, 
and was constantly supplied with the choicest books and 
periodicals of the Anglo-Catholic party. The remarkable 
movement led by Dr. Pusey and Mr. JSTewman was at its 
height. In this country we were somewhat behindhand, and 
were following at some distance in the wake of the most 
advanced English leaders, so that the later developments 
rather took us by surprise. We were reading Mr. Newman's 
earlier works, and only partly aware of the great change 
taking place in himself and others. The accusation of 
Romanizing was treated as a calumny, and we had no thought 
of any thing except bringing our own Church up to what we 
thought to be the Catholic level, and endeavoring to estab- 
lish an intercommunion between it and the Roman and 
Greek Churches through mutual consultation and concession, 
and a return to the supposed state of things " before the sep 
aration of East and West." At least this is true of us in 
Maryland, whatever might have been the case with a small 
number elsewhere. Probably the effort to make the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church take the attitude of being Catholic 
was never made more earnestly and with better hope of suc- 
cess than in Maryland. The bishop headed the movement 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 33 

and, besides the clergymen already in his diocese who were 
ready to second him, he attracted thither a nnmber of yonng 
men who were devoted to his person and who sympathized 
in his views. I have no wish to speak disrespectfully or 
unkindly of Dr. Whittingham. He has always been a most 
violent opponent of the Catholic Church, and he has seen fit, 
like some others of the clergy of his peculiar stripe, to break 
off all intercourse with those who have left his commmiion 
to join it. I do not, however, attribute to him any personal 
animosity as the motive for this, but merely a mistaken reli- 
gious zeal. He was always very kind and generous to his 
young clergymen, strict and self-denying in his lifo, and 
laborious in the fulfilment of his official duties. His vigorous 
administration infused a new energy and activity into the 
Episcopal Church in his diocese, and gave a powerful impetus 
to what was called the " Catholic " movement. A periodical 
entitled The True Catholic ^ Reforived^ Protestant^ and 
Free^ was established, under the care of Hugh Davey Evans, 
a learned lawyer and very able theological disputant. A 
college, conducted by young men trained at the celebrated 
St, Paul's College, Flushing, by Dr. Muhlenberg, was 
founded at a beautiful and extensive old country-seat, known 
as " Fountain Rock," near Hagerstown, and a school, called 
" St. Timothy's Hall," near Baltimore. The bishop and a 
large number of his clergy went about dressed in long cas- 
socks ; altars, crosses, frequent services, ecclesiastical forms 
and observances, and other outward signs and accompani- 
ments of an approximation to Catholic doctrines and rites, 
wxre to be seen everywhere. The Protestant Episcopal 
Church was loudly proclaimed to be the Catholic Church of 
the country, and, in a w^ord, the theory taught in the Oxford 
Tracts and in the earlier writings of Mr. Kewman was 
sought to be put in actual practice. An unusual number of 
the clergy were unmarried men, and the project of founding 
a monastic order was entertained by several. Those were 

2* 



34 MEMOIR OF 

Stirring times. Of course opposition was excited in the 
bosom of the Episcopal Chm-cli. The Low Churchmen 
formed a strono; and active minority in the Convention, and 
did their utmost to thwart the projects of the bishop. Yery 
spicy debates took place in consequence, and as there were 
very able and distinguished men among the lay delegates, 
who brought all their legal skill and forensic eloquence into 
play, the sessions of the Convention were often intensely 
interesting and exciting. The pulpit, the newspapers, and 
controversial pamphlets were employed in the warfare by 
both sides, and the community generally, outside of the 
Episcopal Church, were quite alive with interest iu the ques- 
tions discussed. 

We had a little society called the " Church Heading So- 
ciety," of which Mr. Evans was president, and Mr. Baker and 
myself were members, where certain prayers for Catholic 
unity were offered, and papers bearing on the topics which 
interested us were read by the members in turn. The dif- 
ferent seasons of the ecclesiastical year were very strictly 
observed, especially Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Holy 
Week. The English press was at that time pouring forth a 
stream of books of devotion and sacred poetry, sermons and 
spiritual instructions, borrowed or imitated from the treasures 
of Catholic sacred literature. There was a tide settino- 
strongly backward toward the faith and practice of ancient 
times, and we surrendered ourselves fo its influence, without 
thinking where it would eventually land us. We had no 
thought of ever leaving the communion to which we be- 
longed. Never^ in any of our conversations, did we even speak 
of such a thing as possible, or call in question the legitimate 
claim of the authority, under which we were living, to our 
obedience. We did not sympathize with the bishop and the 
larger number of the clergymen of our theological party in 
their sentiment of hostility and antipathy to the Roman 
communion. The common ground taken was that the 



REV. FRA]N"CIS A. BAKER. 35 

Roman Catholic bishops in England and the United Statea 
are schism atical intruders upon the lawful jurisdiction of the 
English and Anglo-American bishops of the Protestant 
succession. Bishop Whittingham maintained the stronger 
ground that the Roman Church throughout the world is 
sehismatical and all but formally heretical. He retained the 
old spirit of vehement dislike and opposition to the See of 
Rome and every thing in the doctrine and policy of the 
church connected with the Papal supremacy, which charac- 
terized the old divines of the Church of England. He had 
in his mind an ideal of the primitive Church, according to 
which he wished and hoped that a Reformed Catholic Church 
should be reconstructed by the common consent of all the 
bishops of the world, and w^hich should absorb into itself all 
the Christian sects. This idea is necessarily common to all 
who profess to hold Catholic principles in the Anglican com- 
munion. The profession of the doctrine of unity in one, visi- 
ble, Catholic Church, of itself qualifies the isolation of any 
body of Christians from the great Christian family, as an 
anomalous and irregular condition. A return to unity or 
union of some kind must necessarily become an object of 
desire and effort. So long as one maintains that the An- 
glican Church is essentially Catholic, he must maintain also 
that the Roman Church is in some way wrong in refusing to 
recognize it, and that the Greek Church is likewise wrong in 
refusing to do so. Hence he must look on some concessions 
to be made by both Churches as the necessary condition of 
the reunion of Christendom. So far, all who profess to be 
•^Anglo-Catholics" must agree. But when the question be- 
comes, how much concession must be made to the Anglican 
communion, or how much concession must be made by her ; 
how far the Greek Church, the Roman Church, or the An- 
^glican Church have erred ; and upon what basis of doctrine 
and ecclesiastical polity they are to be reformed or restored 
to union, the agreement is ended. Each individual attributes 



86 MEMOIR OP 

as m acli or as little error and corruption to other Churclies, 
or liis own Church, as suits his own notions. Each one, or 
each separate clique, has a peculiar ideal of the true Catholic 
Church. One may regard the Anglican Church as almost 
perfect, and wish to bring all Christendom to imitate it. 
Another finds his beau ideal in the Greek Church. Another 
regards his own Cliurch as very defective, and the Eoman 
Church as the most perfect, desiring that the Holy See should 
only abate just enough of its claims to let in Greeks without 
any acknowledgment of their schismatic contumacy, and An- 
glicans without giving up that they are in heresy and desti- 
tute of any legitimate episcopacy. 

It is impossible to draw any exact line of demarcation be- 
tween the adherents of these different views. At the same 
time, we may say that, in a general sense, one class held the 
Anglican Church as paramount in its claim of allegiance, and 
the Church Catholic as subordinate ; while the other held 
the Church Catholic to be paramount, and the Anglican 
Church subordinate. With the first class. Catholic principles 
and doctrines were taken hold of as a means of strengthening 
and exalting the Protestant Episcopal Church as such, and 
giving her a victory over the rest of Christendom ; with the 
other class, they were embraced in a spirit of deep sympathy 
with universal Christendom, and with the view of bringing^ 
back the Protestant world to the great Christian family. 

The first class alone can be relied on as devoted adherents 
of Anglicanism, and they only hold a strong polemical position 
a2:ainst the claim of the Roman See to unconditional submis- 
sion. The other class have their minds and their hearts open 
to all Catholic influences. They advance continually nearer 
and nearer in belief and sympathy to the great Catholic 
body, and great numbers of them pass over to the Catholic 
communion. Hence we find that almost all the bishops and 
dignitaries who have joined in the Oxford movement have 
belonged decidedly to the first class, and have always tried to 



REV. FKANCIS A. BAKER. • 37 

hold the second class in clieck. The few who have belonged 
to the second class, such as Bishop Ives and the Archdeacons 
Manning and Wilberforce, have eventually found allegiance 
to the Anglican Church incompatible with the paramount 
claims of the Church Catholic, and have of ^nly renounced it. 
But while it is evident that the position of decided and 
determined hostility to Rome is absolutely necessary, as Mr, 
l^ewman lono; ao-o remarked, to Hio-h Church An2:licanism, 
it is equally evident that it is the most narrow, inconsistent, 
and inconsequent position taken by any class of Protestants. It 
cuts them off from all real sympathy and community of feel- 
ing with the great Catholic body ; and althougli there may 
be a pretence of sympathy with the Oriental Church, it is a 
mere pretence, and a most illogical and baseless one. It cuts 
them off equally from all the rest of Protestant Christendom. 
Yet, it is only the Catholic and Greek Churches which offer 
a solid and substantial basis for those doctrinal and hierarchi- 
cal principles which make their only distinctive character ; 
and it is only the Protestant portion of their Church, and its 
jjiose intellectual, social, political, moral, and religious alli- 
ance with the other Protestant Churches, which gives them 
any standing, influence, or power in the world. A man of 
liberal, enlarged, and Christian temper of mind, cannot live in 
such narrow limits or breathe such a confined air. He must 
have communion with something greater than the Protestant 
Episcopal Church. If he regards the great Catholic Chvrch 
as essentially corrupt, he must sympathize with the Protest- 
ant Reformation. If the ground which, as I shall presently 
show, the High Church bishops maintain, is correct, then the 
continental Protestants were bound to come out when they 
did and form new churches. Where were they to get bishops ? 
How were they to preserve the continuity of organization 
and the apostolic succession ? Tlie Church of England did 
not admonish them of the necessity of doing so. She did not 
proffer them episcopal ordination. But she made common 



38 MEMOIR OF 

cause with fcliem, and supported tliem in tlieir revolt, invited 
them over to England, and gave them places in the English 
Church, sent delegates to their great Calvinistic Synod of 
Dort, and in other ways lent them sanction and conntenance, 
without breathing a hint that she was a whit better than 
they. Arguments from Scripture and ancient authors in favor 
of three orders and a liturgy may be very solid and conclu- 
sive, but they are also very petty and miserable when they 
are made the basis of arrogant claims by those whose very 
existence sprang from the assumption that the universal epis- 
copate had betrayed its trust and apostatized from the true 
doctrine of Christ. The learned William Palmer has seen 
the necessity of justifying the attitude of the continental 
Protestant Churches, and therefore concedes to them, on. the 
plea of necessity, valid ordination and a legitimate constitu- 
tion. An Anglican, who is a thorough and consistent oppo- 
nent of Rome, ought to take common ground with Protest- 
ants. One v/ho turns his back on Protestantism, and abjures 
the Reformation, ought to make common cause with Rome 
>gnd the Catholic Church, even though he as yet holds the 
opinion that his communion is a true and living branch of 
the Church of Christ. 

It may seem strange to those who have never studied or 
sympathized in the Oxford movement, that men who adopted 
certain fundamental Catholic principles did not at once em- 
brace the faith and submit to the authority of the Catholic 
Church, but remained a long time in the Episcopal com- 
munion, or even deliberately chose it, after having passed 
their early life in some other Protestant sect. This seems 
strange to those who have always been Catholics, and equally 
strange to the majority of Protestants. So much so, that we 
nave been suspected, and by many fully believed to have 
been all along concealed Roman Catholics, working in the 
Episcopal Church for the purpose of '• Romanizing " it. A 
few days before I was received into the Catholic Church, a 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 39 

near and venerable relative of mine said to me : " I am very- 
glad yon have become a Catholic, for I can respect a sincere 
iioman Catholic, but I cannot respect a Puseyite ; you :^^ill 
now sail under your true colors. When will II. B. (a cousin 
of mine, who is an Episcopalian clergyman) do the same 
thing ?" 

The truth of the matter is, that we all had imbibed such 
an intense prejudice from our early education against the 
Iioman Church, that we were appalled at the thought of join- 
ing her communion. When certain Catholic truths began to 
dawn upon our minds, it was indistinctly. To those who 
were bred in the Anglican Church, it was the natural and 
obvious course to remain there as long as their consciences 
would permit. To others, it was natural to look for a rest- 
ing-place in that communion of which our own particular 
sects were only offshoots, with which educated people of Eng- 
lish descent are so familiar throuo;h the historv and literature 
of our native language, whose services many of us had 
frequently attended from childhood, and where many of us 
akewise had relatives and friends. It is a small matter to go 
from one Protestant sect to another, in itself considered, and 
it is no wonder that any orthodox Protestant should prefer 
the Episcopal Church to any of the religious bodies which 
have seceded from it. Besides this, there was a via m^dia 
offered to us by a great body of divines in the Episcopal 
Church, between Pome on the one hand and Protestantism 
on the other, which appeared to be exactly the thing we 
wanted. I acknowledge that I was too easily allured by this 
specious pretence, and failed to examine with due care the 
claims of the Church in communion with the See of Rome to 
be the true and only Church of Christ. I do not think Mr. 
Baker, notwithstanding that his i)rejudices were far less than 
mine, ever gave the subject serious and careful consideration, 
until long after he had become an Episcopalian minister. We 
knew too little, however, of the subject^ to feel any conscien- 



40 MEMOIR OF 

tioiiy obligations in that direction. I can truly say that I 
never for one moment deliberated on the question of becom- 
ing a Catholic, even when I had the fear of death before my 
eyes, nntil after I left Baltimore in the autumn of 1845. I 
never heard from Mr. Baker, up to that time, a word which 
betrayed the existence in his mind of any practical doubt 
about his duty in this respect. The growth of Catholic prin- 
ciples in our minds was gradual. By degrees, the mists of 
misrepresentation, prejudice, and ignorance which obscured 
the Catholic Church and her doctrines were dissipated and 
vanished. Our feelings of veneration and love for the great 
Church of Christendom increased. Still, as long as we were 
not convinced that actual communion with the Church of 
Rome and submission to her supremacy was necessary, jure 
divino^ to the catholicity of any local Church, we remained 
firm in our allegiance to the ecclesiastical authority of our 
bishop. This is only an instance of what was going on in the 
case of many both in England and the United States. And 
it appears from this statement, that whereas all the disciples 
of the Oxford movement began on essentially the same 
ground, and that, one which implied strong and decisive 
opposition to Home, one portion of them progressed continu- 
ally, and another remained stationary or retrograded, thus 
producing separation and division in the ranks. What I wish 
to show now is, that those who progressed were logically 
compelled to do so by the principles of the movement itself, 
and that those who remained stationary, aluiough they held 
a position which was necessary to the maintenance of 
Anglicanism, were illogical and inconsequent. 

The advocates of the claim of the Church of England to be 
the only legitimate and Catholic Church in England, and of 
the same claim for the Protestant Episcopal Cliurch in the 
United States, were obliged to make out some case against 
the bishops oi' these two countries who were under the juris- 
diction of the Roman See, and who proclaimed themselves 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER 41 

to be the only lawful and Catholic bishops, sustained as they 
were in this claim by all the other bishops of Western Chris- 
tendoiTL. The possession of the titles and temporalities of the 
ancient sees in England by the Established Church naturally 
suggested the plausible pretext that the Church of England 
of to-day is the legitimate successor of the Church of Engl and 
before the separation imder Henry VIII. Hence, other 
bishops, exercising episcopal functions within the dioceses of the 
bishops of the Church of England, are scMsmatical intruders, 
and their congregations are schismatical. The same princi- 
ple was extended to the United States, on the piea that the 
Bishop of London had episcopal jurisdiction over the English. 
colonies, and morever that the Protestant Episcopal bishops 
were first on the ground, and had acquired possesssion before 
the " Eomish " bishops, as they chose to call them, came. 
Now this theory is forced to answer one question : Are tbe 
bishops of France, Spain, &c., the legitimate Catholic bishops 
of those countries, and is their communion the true and only 
Catholic Church there, or not ? Is this question answered in 
the affirmative? Then, who are the Catholic bishops in 
Canada, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and California ? 
Who went first to China and India ? Are the Anglican 
bishops in these places schismatical intruders or not ? If not, 
why not? And if not, why are Roman Catholic bishops 
schismatical intruders in London and New-York? The 
Protestant Episcopal Churches of England and the United 
States pay no attention whatever to any claim of jurisdiction 
by tlie Catholic Church in any part of the world, but seel: 
to thrust themselves in and make converts wherever they caji. 
In order to justify this attitude, and at the same time co pro- 
fess Catholic principles, it is necessary to maintain that the 
entire Roman communion is schismatical and heretical, and 
the Protestant Episcopal Church is the true and only Catholic 
Church, at least in Western Christendom. This idea is tlie 
ireal a7iimus of the Protestant Episcopate, and its highest ex- 



42 MEMOIR OF 

prcssion is found in the opinion so common among Protest- 
ants, and lield even by Mr. Kewman some years after he 
commenced the Oxford Tracts, that the Pope is Antichrist. 
The charges of the English bishops, especially these delivered 
after the publication of the Oxford Tract No. 90, all breathe 
this spirit. Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, in a sermon preached 
at the consecration of the missionary bishops, Boone and 
Southgate, in St. looter's Church, Philadelphia, in 1843 or 
44, spoke of the Catholic missionaries as " dealing out death 
instead of life " to the heathen. Bishop Whittingham held 
this view, and. " Tridentine Schismatic" was one of the 
appellations he gave to the Pev. Dr. White, of Baltimore, in 
a pamphlet which he published against that gentleman. In 
his Annual Address for 1846 he speaks of me and other con- 
verts in the following language : " The lapse of several prom- 
inent members of our English sister, and of one even in our 
own little band, into the defilements of the Romish communion^ 
has but too far justified others in sounding the note of alarm, " 
&c."^ The language he made use of in one of his addresses 
was such, that Mr. Baker, then one of his presbyters, posi- 
tively declined to read it for him in the Convention, his own 
voice being too weak to do so. The Pev. A. C. Coxe, now a 
bishop, published a poem on the occasion of the ordination of 
the present Bishop of JSTewark to the diaconate, in Rome, 
entitled " Hymn of the Priests, to lament one of their number 
who has been sacrilegiously reordained a deacon, aftei' abjur- 
ing the Catholic communion^ at Pome. " In contrast with 
this is the following, which was copied into the True Catholic 
for December, 1843.t 

CONYERSIOX OF A POPISH PKIE3T TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 

AT CHICESTER. 

The Cathedeal, Sitnday^ October 15. 
In residence, the Lord Bisliop, the very Rev. the Dean, the Yen. Arch- 
deacon Webber, and the Eev. Charles Webber, can. res. Yv e have to 

* Jounial of Convention of Maryland, 1846, p. 25. f ^' 383. 



REV. FKAXCIS A. BAKER. 43 

record this week one of the roost interesting ceremonies ever performed 
within the walls of this sacred edifice, namely, the public admission of a 
clerical convert from the Church of Rome, into the bosom of tlie Holy 
Catholic Church in this country. The morning prayers were chanted 
by the Rev. J. P. Roberts, Sub-dean. The Te Deum and Jubilate was Boyce 
in A. At the ending of the Litany, the Bishop and the Dean proceeded 
to the altar, while the choir performed Weldon's Sanctus ; after which 
(the penitent, Mr. Yignati, an Italian gentleman, who has been for two 
years a priest in the Romish Communion, standhig without the rails) the 
bishop addressed the congregation in the following words : — 

'' Dearly beloved, we are here met together for the reconciling of a 
penitent (lately of the Clmrch of Rome) to the Established Church of 
England, as to a true and sound part of Cheist's Holy Catholic Church. 
2^0 w, that this weighty affair may have its due effect, let us, in the first 
place, humbly and devoutly pray to Almighty God for his blessing upon 
us in that pious and charitable office we are going about. 

" Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious favor, 
and further us with Thy continual help, that in this, and all other our 
woriis begun, continued, and ended in Thee, we may glorify Thy holy 
name, and finally by Thy mercy obtain everlasting life, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 

*' Almighty God, who showest to them that be in error the light of Thy 
truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness, 
grant unto all them that are or shall be admitted into the fellowship of 
Christ's religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to 
their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." 

Then was read a part of the 119th Psalm, from verses 161 to 168, with 
the Gloria Patri. 

After which the dean read the following lesson from Luke xv. : — " Then 
drew near unto him the publicans and sinners for to hear Him ; and the 
Pharisess and Scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners, and 
eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What 
man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not 
leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which was 
lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it he layeth it on hi| 
shoulders rejoicing ; and when he cometh home he calleth together hia 
friends and his neighbors, saying unto them, rejoice with me, for I have 
found my sheep which was lost I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in 
heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine 
just persons who need no repentance." 

After this the nine first verses of the 115th Psalm was sung by the 



44 MEMOIR OF 

choir. Then the bishtp, sitting in his chair, spake to the penitent (who 
was kneeling) as follows : — 

Dear brother, I have good hope that you have well weighed and con- 
Bid ered with yourself the great work you are come about before this 
tirue : but inasmuch as with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, 
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; that you may 
give the more honor to God, and that this present congregation of Christ 
here assembled may also understand your mind and will in these things, 
and that this your declaration may the more confirm you in your good 
resolutions, you shall answer plainly to those questions, which we, in the 
name of God, and of His Church, shall propose to you touching the 
same. 

Art thou thoroughly persuaded that those books of the Old and N"ew 
Testament, which are received as Canonical Scriptures by this Church, 
contain sufficiently all doctrine requisite and necessary to eternal salva- 
tion through faith in Jesus Christ? — I am so persuaded. 

Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and 
earth ? &c. — All this I steadfastly believe. 

Art thou truly sorrowful that thou hast not followed the way prescribed 
in these Scriptures for the direction of the faith and practice of a true 
disciple of Christ Jesus? — I am heartily sorry, and I hope for mercy 
through Christ Jesus. 

Dost thou embrace the truth of the Gospel in the love of it, and stead- 
fastly resolve to live godly, righteosuly, and soberly in this present world, 
ull the days of thy life ? — I do so embrace it, and do so resolve, God being 
my helper. 

Dost thou earnestly desire to be received into the communion of this 
Church, as into a sound part of Christ's Holy Catholic Church ? — This I 
earnestly desire. 

Dost thou renounce all the errors and superstitions of the present Ro- 
mish Church, so far as they are come to thy knowledge? — I do, from my 
heart, renounce them all. 

Dost thou, in particular, renounce the twelve last Articles added in the 
Confession, commonly called ''The Creed of Pope Pius lY.," after having 
read them, and duly considered them ? — I do, upon mature deliberation, 
reject them all, as grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but rather 
repugnant to the Word of God. 

Wilt thou conform thyself to the Liturgy of the Church of England, as 
by law established, and be diligent in attending the prayers and other 
Dilces of the Church ? — I will do so by the help of God. 

Then the bishop standing, said : " Almighty God, who hath given yon a 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 45 

eense of your errors, and a will to do these things, grant also nnto you 
the strength and power to perform the same, that He may t\ccomplish His 
;^^ork, which He hath begun in you, through Jesus Christ. Amen." 

The Absoltjtiox. — Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who, of Hia 
great mercy, hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that witli 
hearty repentance and true faith turn unto Him, have mercy upon ycu, 
pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in 
all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life, through Jesus Chris-t our 
Lord. Amen. 

Then the bishop, taking him by the hand, said : *'I, Ashurst Turner, 
Bishop of Chichester, do, upon this thy solemn profession and earnest re- 
qutst, receive thee into the Holy Communion of the Church of England, 
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen." 

Then was said the Lord's Prayer, all kneeling, after which as follows : — 
O God of truth and love, we bless and magnify Thy holy name for Thy 
great mercy and goodness in bringing this Thy servant into the com- 
munion of this Church ; give him, we beseech Thee, stability and perse- 
verance in that faith, of w^hich he hath, in the presence of God and of this 
congregation, witnessed a good confession. Suffer him not to be moved 
from it by any tempations of Satan, enticements of the v»'orld, scoffs of 
irreligious men, or the revilings of those still in error ; but guard him by 
Thy grace against all these snares, and make him instrumental in turning 
others from the errors of their ways, to the saving of their souls from 
death, and the covering a multitude of sins. And in Thy good time, O 
Lord, bring, we pray Thee, into the way of truth all such as have erred 
and are deceived ; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thy flv)ck, 
that there may be one flock under one Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
to ^Vhom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, 
world without end. Amen. 

Then the bishop addressed the person admitted, saying : " Dear bro- 
ther, seeing that you have, by the goodness of God, proceeded thus far, I 
must put you in mind that you take care to go on in that good way into 
which you are entered; and for your establishment and furtherance 
therein, that if you have not been confirmed, you endeavor to be so the 
next opportunity, and receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
And may God's Holy Spirit ever be w^ith you. Amen. The peace of 
God, which passeth all understanding, keep your heart and mind by 
Christ Jesus. Amen." 

Thus ended this most interesting ceremony ; after which the commu- 
nion service went on, at which the bishop and dean oflSciated. Weldon's 
Sancttcs^ B. Brown's Kijrie, and Child's Oi^eed in G. The sermon was 



i6 MEMOIR OF 

preached by the dean, from Luke loth, ch. 4th, 5th, and 6th verses, of 
which we need not say much here, as we hope it will shortly be pub- 
lished by Mr. W. H* Mason, by permission of the dean, he having been 
requested so to do* Anthem, "OLord, our Governor.'^— Kent.— {7At^rc7i 
tntelligencer. 

The Eoman Ctiurcli is throughout the pages of the True 
Catholic charged with idolatry, and in one passage which I 
had marked, but cannot now find one reason given why Episco- 
palians cannot attend Catholic services is, because by so doing 
they participate in idolatry. On the other hand, Protestant 
ministers are never required to make any such abjuration as 
the one above cited, on being received into the English 
Church* The Church of England formerly gave Archbishop 
Leighton episcopal ordination, he being a Scottish Presby- 
terian minister, and the Crown gave him jurisdiction in Scot- 
land over the Presbyterian clergy and congregations, without 
requiring any reordination or any new profession of faith. 
So now, a German Lutheran minister alternately with an Eng- 
lish Episcopalian, is ordained for the Jerusalem bishopric, with 
authority to receive under his care both English and German 
ministers and congregations. 

]^ow for the inconsistency. The same reasons which prove 
the Church of Rome to be a schismatical, heretical, and 
apostate Church, prove that the English Church was the same 
before the Reformation, and that the Church of Christ had 
perished in Western Christendom, except as represented by 
the Lollards, Albigenses, Waldenses, and other precursors of 
the Protestants. There was really no true, visible Catholic 
Church existing, from which schismatics and heretics had 
separated, and to which they could return. Hence, the 
modern Episcopal Church derived its authority from no legit- 
imate source in the past, and has really started de novo^ like 
the Protestant Churches of Europe. This throws us back upon 
the theory of an invisible Church at once, and breaks up the 
idea of Catholicity* 



For the same reasonj the Oriental Churches must be re- 
gai'ded as schismatical and heretical. The ITestorians and 
Eutychians are condemned by the Comiclls of Epheius and 
Ohalcedon, accepted by our Anglicans. The Greek Church is 
identical in doctrine with the Eoman, except so far as the 
Papal supremacy is rejected by them. It disowns and con- 
demns the Anglican Church as emphatically as does the 
Roman. Xevertheless, we find a number of the Protestant 
bishops subscribing the following letter to the Patriarch oi 
Constantinople : — 

LETTER TO TEE GREEK PATRIARCE- 

Binghamtoj^, "5?. Y.j 1st April, 1844, 

To the Editor of the True Catholic : 

Bear Sir : — Having seen in print a copy, surreptitiously obtained, cf 
tLe letter of our bishops, addressed to some of the Patriarchs in the 
East, I have thought it might be well to furnish an authentin copy, for 
permanent preservation in your valuable perodical, especially as it is a 
document of much importance. It is precisely as I myself, Logether with 
Mr. Southgate, presented it, accompanied hy a Greeh translation^ to the 
Patriarcli of Constantinople, who received it very graciously. 

Yours, very truly, J. J. RoBERTso?*r. 

To the Venerahle and Right Reiser end Father in God, the Patriarch 
of the GreeTc Churchy resident at Oomlantifwple. 

jAKFARt 2, 1S41. 

The Episcopal Church of t^e United States of America, deriving its 
Episcopal power in regular succession from the holy x\postlts, thi'ough 
the venerable Church of England, has long contemplated, v/ith great 
spiritual sorrow, the divided and distracted condition of the CathoMc 
Church of Chri-st throughout the world. This sad condition of things 
not only aids the cause of infidelity and irreligion, by furnishing evil- 
minded men with plausible arguments^ not only encourages heresies and 
.schisms in national branches of the Catholic Church, but is also a very 
!iierious impediment to the diffusion of Gospel truth among those who 
are still in the darkness of heathenism, or are subject to other false re- 
ligions, or continue vainly to look for the coming of that Messiah, whose 
advent has already blessed the v/orld. 

The arrogant ^--i^^umptions of universal sunreraacy and i'nfaliibility, of 



\S MEMOIR OF 

tiie Pnpa^ Lead of the Latin Church, render the prospect of speedy 
friendly uxerconrse with him dark and discouraging. The Churi'h in 
the United States of America, therefore, looking to the Triune God for 
Hi.^ blessings upon its efforts for unity in the Body of Christ, turns with 
TiOpe to the Patriarch of Constantinople, the spiritual head of the ancient 
ixnd venerable Oriental Church. 

In this Church we have long felt a sincere interest. We have sympa- 
thized with her in the trials and persecution to which she has been S'lb- 
jected ; we have prayed for her deliverance from all evils and mischiefs ; 
and we have thanked her Divine Head that He has been pleased^ amid 
ail her suiferings, to maintain her allegiance to Him. 

In order to attempt the commencement of a friendly and Christian in- 
tercourse with the Oriental Church, the Church in the United States 
resolved to send two of its Presbyters, the Rev. J. J. Robertson, and the 
Rev. Rorri.vio Southgate, to reside at Constantinople. These clergymen 
are directed to make inquiries regarding the existing state of the Church 
under til e jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and of the 
other Eastern Churches ; to ascertain the relations they bear to each 
other, and the views they maintain in regard to the Apostolic Churches 
of Europe and America; to answer such inquiries as may be made of 
them in regard to the origin, constitution, and condition of the Church 
in the United States; and to do all in their power to conciliate the 
Christian love and regard of the Oriental Church toward its younger 
siister in the Vv^estern world. 

After some preliminary inquiries and study of the language, they will 
present themselves, with this epistle of introduction (by which they are 
cordially recommended to the Christian courtesies and kind offices of 
the bishops and olergy of the Oriental Church), to the Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, irv'.ti ig him to a friendly correspondence with the heads of 
the Church in the United States, explaining more fully the views and 
objects of the Church, and inquiring whether a mutual recognition of 
each other can be e-ffected, as members of the Catholic Church of Christ, 
on the basis of the Holy Scriptures and the first Councils, including the 
Apostles' and Kicene Creeds, in order to a future efficient co-operation 
ciTjainst Paganism, fal-e religion, and Judaism. 

They will m^ke it clearly understood that their Church has no eccle- 
siastical connection with the followers of Luther and Calvin, and takes, 
r.c rart In theh* p^.^.js or operations to diffuse the principles of their sects. 
They wi>l propose to the Patriarch such aid as the Church in the United 
St vtes 0£-n supply, in the advancement of Christian education, and in the 
promulgation of religious truth, always avoiding the points in which the 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 49 

laro Churches still differ, and leaving the producing of a closer mutaal 
eoLformity to the blessing of God, on the friendly correspondence of tho 
respective heads of the Churches, or to a future General Council 

Leaving a further development of these points to the oral communica- 
tions of its delegates, and again recommending them to the Christian 
candor and affection of the Patriarch and clergy of the Oriental Church, 
and repeating the hearty desire and prayer of the bishops and clergy of 
the United States for their prosperity, we remain your brethren in 
Christ. 

Alexander Viets Geiswold, of the Eastern Diocese, and Senior ot 
the American Church. 

Benjamin Teed well Ondeedonk, of 'New York. 

Geoege Washington Doane, of New Jersey. 

Thomas Chuech Beownell, of Connecticut. 

Jackson Kempee, of Missouri, &c. 

William Eollinson Whittingham, of Maryland. 

Heney Ustick Ondeedonk, of Pennsylvania. 

At the recent visit of a Russian sqnadi'on to 'New York, the 
Protestant Bishop of New York invited the chaplains of the 
squadron to make use of one of his churches for the service of 
the Greek Church, although the offer was declined. Subse- 
quently, a Cossack priest, called Father Agapius, said to have 
letters from the Archbishop of Athens, came to New York as 
a missionary to the Greeks and Russians, and was accommo- 
dated with the use of two Episcopal churches. It came out 
subsequeiitly that he was in bad standing in the Russian 
Church, and the members of the Greek Church in New York 
disowned him, when he threw off the mask, and published a 
letter where he avowed doctrines far from orthodox accord- 
ing to the standards of the Greek Church. JSTevertheless, it 
was ostensibly as a regular priest of that Church that he was 
invited to make use of the Episcopal churches ; as such the 
members of that church received him, and whatever changes 
or omissions he may have made in his public services, they 
were understood to be celebrated according to the Sclavonic 
aud Greek Liturgies. Thus, there is no escaping from the 
tact, that High Mass according to the same rite used by 

8 



50 MEMOIR OF 

Oriental Catholics as well as schismatics, was authorized m 
the Episcopal Church in New York, a great number of the 
clergy assisting. 

The English Church bishops, beginning with the old Eng- 
lish Nonjurors, have been always anxious for the recognition 
of the Greek prelates, and have made several attempts to 
gain it. 

Soon after my ordination as deacon in the Episcopal Church, 
I was invited by Bishop Southgate to accompany him to 
Constantinople on a mission of this kind. The plan was to 
have a little ecclesiastical establishment in Constantinople, 
consisting of a bishop and a few priests and deacons. Al- 
though the bishop, who had been for some years a travelling 
missionary in the East, was married, he wished his clergy to 
be unmarried men, and selected only such as his associates. 
There was to be a chapel, where all the rites and ceremonies 
permitted by Anglican law were to be celebrated with as 
much pomp as possible. Sermons in the Oriental languages, 
designed to attract the clergy and make a good impression of 
our orthodoxy, were to be preached regularly. A college and 
seminary for the instruction of young Oriental ecclesiastics 
were to be opened, with a strict understanding that they vere 
not to be induced to leave their own communion. Extracts 
from the works of the Greek Fathers, and translations from 
Anglican divines, were to be published, with a view to bring 
about mutual understanding and agreement between the dif- 
ferent Churches. Every thing was to be done to propitiate 
the Oriental prelates and clergy, and to bring about their 
recognition of our ecclesiastical legitimacy, and intercom- 
munion between themselves and us. The Missionary Com- 
mittee, who were hostile to this plan, would not confirm my 
appointment, regarding me as having too strong a Catholic 
bias to be trusted. Another young deacon was selected in 
my place, who had been known as a strong Puseyite, but 
who publicly renoimced his opinions before he left the coun 



KEY. imANCIS A. BAKER. 51 

try, in a sermon, in wliich he came out as a strong Evangeli- 
cal. The mission was never well supported, but after a 
few years, fell through entirely, and the bishop is now a 
parish rector in J^ew York. During a visit to I^Tew York, 
which I made in company with Bishops Whittingham and 
Southgate, at the time I was expecting to accompany the 
^ latter on his mission, I called nn a very distinguished and 
learned presbyter, who was one of the ablest and most influ- 
ential leaders of the Oxford movement. He asked me if we 
proposed to endeavor to change the doctrines of the Greek 
Church. I replied, that certainly we did propose to discuss 
several of these doctrines with the Greek prelates, and show 
them that they were not doctrines appertaining to the Catho- 
lic faith, but errors and additions made without authority. 
He inquired what these doctrines were. I cannot recollect 
how many I specified, but I am sure that the doctrine 
respecting the cultus of the Blessed Virgin and saints was 
the principal one. He replied that the doctrines I specified 
were established by just as good authority as any others, and 
that it would be impossible for us to convict the Greek 
Church of holdino; anv erroneous doctrine. His ar.Q:ument3 
made a great imjDression on my mind at the time, and helped 
me forward to^vard the Catholic Church, although this gen- 
tleman himself remained always a Protestant. 

The efibrts made to cultivate the friendship of the Greek 
Church are very significant. Let it be observed, that the 
bishops who signed the letter to the Patriarch of Constan- 
tinople, both distinctly repudiate the Eeformation of Lutber 
and Calvin, and consent to waive all questions of differenc© 
between the Greek and the Protestant Episcopal Churches, 
until tliey can be decided by a General Council, This re- 
duces the gravamen of the charges against Pome to the only 
point of difi*erence which exists between herself and the 
Greek Church ; that is, to the claim of supremacy of the 
Roman Pontiff. This is, then, the sum and substance of the 



52 MEMOIR OF 



a 



defilements of the Romish communion^ Here lies the whole 
casibs helli between the champions of Anglicanism and the 
Catholic Church. There is no hope of reconciliation on 
equal terms with the See of Rome and her vast communion. 
Therefore, a rival claim of Catholicity must be set up, and 
supported by every possible charge that can be made to tell 
against the mighty Church whose Bishop claims the dignity 
and authority of successor to the Prince of the Apostles. 
Hence the odious names of "Romau Scliism/' "Komanist," 
" Romish/' " Tridentine Schism, " Popery," '- Popish," and 
all the other party catch-words of corruption in doctrine, 
bondage, tyranny, idolatry, etc., which are studiously em- 
ployed, ill order to throw dust in the eyes of the simple and 
unwary. Hence the eflbrt to appropriate the name of Catho- 
lic, and to use all the phraseology associated with it, in con- 
nection with the Protestant Episcopal communion. Rome 
will not abate one jot or tittle of her divine rights, or of the 
Catholic doctrine of which she is the principal bulwark ; and 
she will not treat the Church of England as a branch of the 
Christian Church. Therefore a rival must be set up against 
her, backed by the power and the prestige of the English 
name, and, if possible, also by those of the mighty Russian 
Empire and the ancient Eastern Church. The JSTonjin'ors 
proposed to the Eastern prelates sitting in the Synod of 
Bethlehem, a plan for combining against Rome under an 
ecclesiastical organization whose head should be the Patriarch 
of Jerusalem. It was scornfully rejected, together with all their 
other overtures. No doubt, if the Church of England and 
the Episcopal Church of the United States could make a 
combination with the Greek Church, on the basis of the 
Oriental standards of doctrine, it v\^ould be the most formid- 
able rival possible to the Catholic Church. But such a union 
is impossible. The Providence of God does not permit 
heresy and schism to assume the attitude of Catholicity, but 
uompels them to manife:3t their true character by disintegra- 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 53 

tjon. And here lies another mark of the inconsistency of the 
theory of those who set up this claim of rival Catholicity 
against Rome. The Protestant Episcopal Chnrches, as 
such, do not sanction and assert in their public and otBcial 
action the claim made for them by a certain portion of their 
members. The utmost that can be said of them is, that they 
affirm and exact episcopal ordination as requisite to a com- 
plete conformity to the pohty established by the Apostles. 
They do not, however, assert, or require their clergy to be- 
lieve, the necessity of apostolic succession to the being of a 
Church. Their standards are so constructed as to afford a 
shelter and a warrant to those who hold this and several 
other Catholic doctrines and principles. These doctrines are 
not, however, officially put forward as a term of communion, 
or a condition for ordination. The official doctrine of a Church 
is limited to that which it exacts by authority and under 
penalty of its teachers to hold and j)rofess. It comes down 
to the lowest level of doctrine which its teachers can hold, 
and still be reputed sound and orthodox clers:^mien. I^ow 
a very low Protestantism is all that even High Church 
bishops can exact from candidates for the priesthood or the 
episcopacy. " Anglo-Catholic '' doctrhie is nothing but the 
tolerated opinion of a certain party. Therefore, on these 
" Angio-Catholic " principles, and according to the doctrine 
and decisions of the Greek Church, the Protestant Episcopal 
Church is schismatical and heretical, because she enforces 
nothing by her authority beyond Protestantism, which is 
heresy accordino; to that standard of doctrine which was uni- 
versally acknowledged before the " separation of the East 
and West," and accepted both by Greeks and " Anglo- 
Catholics." According to those principles, then, which would 
condemn the Roman Church of heresy and schism, all Episco- 
pal Churches in the world have fallen away from the unity 
of faith established by our Lord, and the Catholic Church 
exists no more. Hence, even an "Anglo-Catholic," if he 



54 MEMOIR OF 

svoiild not be driven into the arms of pare Protestantism., 
and consort with those followers of Luther and Calvin who 
are disowned by Bishop Griswold and his associates, are 
forced to make common cause with Rome and her Catholic 
communion. 

The progressive portion of those who were engaged in 
the Oxford movement saw and felt all this, and, therefore, in 
a strict consistency with their Catholic principles, and by a 
logical necessity, they advanced in a Ronieward direction. 
It has been necessary to make this long explanation in order 
to show how matters stood at the time when Mr. Baker and 
myself were connected with the ecclesiai^tical movement in 
Baltimore, nnder Bishop Whittingham. The Oxford move- 
ment was then ten years old. The celebrated Ninetieth 
Tract, in which Mr. Is'ewman took the ground that several 
Roman dogmas were permitted by the Thirty-nine Articles, 
and that the Articles were to be explained according to the 
Catholic sense of the general body of the Universal Church, 
had been some time published, and the controversy excited 
by it w^as nearly completed. Mr. ITewman was about resign- 
ing St. Mary's, and soon after went into retirement at Little- 
more. A great number of the ablest writers of his parly 
had advanced very far beyond the position taken by the 
earlier Oxford Tracts, and by Palmer, Percival, Keble, and 
others, at the ontset. In the United States, the ordination of 
the Rev. Arthur Carey had taken place, under circumstances 
of the most peculiar character, which deserve a passing notice. 

Arthur Carey was a young student of the New York Theo- 
logical Seminary, barely twenty years of age, of an English 
family, and descended from several bishops of the E^nglish 
Church. He was a youth of rare intellectual gifts and ac- 
quirements, as well as of the most gentle and lovely charac- 
ter. Bishop Whittingham, who had been his preceptor, said 
that he possessed the wisdom of a raan of fifty. In some Vv^ay, 
the suspicions of a number of the principal Low Chui^ch lec- 



REV. FEAJS^CIS A. BAKER. 55 

tors had been excited in regard to him, and he was subjec ted to 
a most rigorous examination for orders, in which he mani- 
fested his profound theological science and his brilliant parts, 
together with a magnanimity of spirit which won for him a 
wide-spread admiration, especially among all High Church 
Episcopalians. In the course of his examination, he avowed 
the most advanced opinions of the Oxford party, and ex 
pressed his belief in the sound orthodoxy of the decrees of 
the Council of Trent. He was violently attacked by some 
members of the examining committee, and defended by others, 
the majority finally recommending him for ordination. 
Bishop Onderdonk determined to ordain him, and was pro- 
ceeding in the ceremony of ordination, when he was inter- 
rupted by two doctors of divinity in gowns, who publicly 
protested against the ordination, and then left the church. 
Bishop Whittingham urged him very strongly, after his or- 
dination, to come to his diocese, which he declined doing. 
About this time, I read, in manuscript, a beautiful philosophi- 
cal essay on Transubstantiation, which he wrote, according to 
the system of Leibniz, proving the futility of all the rational 
arguments urged against it. The circumstances of his ordina- 
tion made him suddenly famous. He was assistant minister 
to Dr. Seaburj^, at the Church of the Annunciation, and 
every Sunday his sermons were reported for the secular 
papers, with minute accounts of his aj)pearance, and all his 
sayings and doings. This publicity was insufferable to him ; 
and in a letter of his, which I saw, he said that it 
made life a burden to him. His constitution was ex- 
tremely delicate, and weakened by close application to 
study. He was a boy in years, and unable to breast the 
moral shock which he had received. He speedily sank into 
a decKne, and died at sea, off the Moro of Havana, whither 
he had been sent for the benefit of his health, his bo^^y being 
committed to the deep by his fellow-passengers, who were all 
strangers to him, and one of whom read the Burial Service 



56 MEMOIR OF 

over his remains. For a long time afterward, his )oor father 
miglit be seen every day standing on the Battery, and gazing 
wistfully out to sea, with mournful thoughts, longing after 
the son whom lie had lost. There is somethino; in the his-torv of 
Arthur Carey assimilating it to that of Richard Ilurrell 
Froude. Each of them, in his sphere, did more than any 
other to arrest the anti-Roman tendency of the Oxford move- 
ment, and give it a Romeward direction. In Mr. Carey's 
instance, it was not the mere effect of his own personal avowal 
of holding Roman doctrine, but the protection given him in 
doing so by the bishop of the principal diocese, the direc- 
tors of the General Seminary, and a large number of other 
bishops and clergymen, which was significant. It was this 
which led to the persecution of Bishop Onderdonk ; and it was 
believed that a plan was on foot for similar attacks on the 
other bishops who were regarded as Puseyites. 

The reader of these pages can now understand something 
of the nature of those stirring and exciting times in the eccle- 
siastical world in which Mr. Baker began his career, and of 
the events and questions about vfhich we were daily convers- 
ing together. Bishop Whittingham approved of the principle 
of interpreting the Articles laid down in the Ninetieth Tract. 
On this principle, I gave my assent to them at my examination 
for orders, and could not otherwise have assented to them with 
a safe conscience. Th@ ordination of Mr. Carey opened the 
way for us to go forward to the full extent of holding all the 
doctrines of the Council of Trent. The current of Oxford 
thought and literature was sweeping us in that direction. We 
had full access to it, and felt its power, although, as I have 
said, we were a good deal behind the movement, and igno- 
rant of many things which were ta*l:ing place in England. Mr. 
Baker was far in advance of me at the time our fi-iendship 
began. He never had that feeling of hostility to the Roman 
Church with which so many were filled. His early education, 
Rud the knowledge he had of Catholicity and of the Catholic 



EEV. FKAKCIS A. BAKER. 57 

clergy and laity in Baltimore, preserved him from that strong 
prejudice which I retained from the impressions of childhood, 
and which he aided me greatly to overcome. J^either of us 
ever looked on the Roman communion as heretical, schismat- 
ical, or essentially corrupt. We adopted, at first, the preva- 
lent idea that it was in a schismatical position in England, 
and in those parts of the United States where we supposed 
the Protestant Episcopal Church had prior possession. We 
dropped this notion, however, after a while ; and I remember 
well that it was a friend of om^s, who was then and i^ now a 
minister of the Episcopal Church, who drove it finally out of 
my head by solid and unanswerable arguments. We could 
not agree with the bishop and his party in their anti-Eoman 
sentiments, and disliked the ofiensive use of the terms 
"Romish" and "Romanist." We regarded the Catholic 
Church as composed of three great branches — the Latin, 
Greek, and Anglican — unhappily estranged from each other, 
and all more or less to blame for the separation. We did not 
believe in the supremacy of the Pope, in the full Catholic 
sense, as constituting the essential principle of Catholic unity, 
or that communion with the Holy See w^as necessary to the 
very being of a Church. We did, however, come to believe 
by degrees in a certain Primacy, partly divine and partly ec- 
clesiastical, as necessary to order, and the means of preserv- 
ing intercommunion among all bishops What ^ve regarded 
as errors in Roman doctrine, we looked upon as much les& 
fundamental than those Protestant errors which pervaded so 
extensively our own Church ; we considered them much in the 
same light with which Bishop Griswold and his brethren re- 
garded the peculiar doctrines of the Greek Church, as matters 
to be tolerated, until all branches of the Church could meet 
in a general council and make a final decision upon all con- 
troversies. Considering the divided and anomalous state of 
Christendom, we thought that both the Roman and Anglican 
bishops had an eq[ually legitimate jurisdiction over their cun- 

3« 



58 MEMOIK OF 

gregations, and that we were alike Catholics, and in real com- 
munion with the Universal Church of 'all ages and ns^tions. 
We thought it to be the duty of each one to remain in the 
communion where he had been baptized or ordained, and 
would have dissuaded any Episcopalian from joining the Ko- 
man communion, or any Roman Catholic from joining ours. 
I remember, one evening, after hearing an account given with 
great glee by a young man of the perversion of a Catholic, that 
Mr. Baker said, after the person in question had gone, " What 

a miserable story that was which M just related !" In my 

own little parish, there was an Irish servant-girl, whom I mar- 
ried to a young Englishman, my parishioner. I had no scruple 
in doing this, not reflecting that I was the occasion of the girl 
committing a sin against her own conscience. But when her 
mistress expressed great hopes of her coming over to our 
Church, and I began to think she might apply to me for con- 
firmation, I carefully avoided encouraging the plan, and con- 
sidered seriously what I ought to do if any such case should 
arise. Yery strangely and inconsistently. Bishop Whittingham 
used to confirm the occasional perverts that fell in his way, 
although they had received Catholic confirmation. And this in- 
creased my difficulty. For I regarded an act of that kind as a 
sacrilege, and could not have been a party to it in any case, 
unless I had thought it right, according to my overstrained 
notions of obedience, to throw the whole responsibility on the 
bishop. As I have often said, vf e never entertained the thought 
of leaving our own Clmrch. The conversation of those who 
talked doubtfully on this point was always most disagreeable 
to us both, although it was only in one or two instances that we 
fell in with any such persons. 

Toward our own bishojj we were strictly obedient. His 
violent antipathy to Rome and strong Anglican party spirit, 
joined with a timid, politic course of action toward the Low 
Church, ultra-Protestant party, prevented our giving him 
full and unreserved confidence. Mr. Baker had seldom tlie 



REV. FBAls^CIS A. BAKER. 59 

occasion of conversing much with him. 1 was, however, 
constantly in his family, and very much in his society. I 
confided in him as a man of integrity, a sincere and generous 
friend, and a just and kind superior. But, from the first, 
there was a barrier which I had not expected to full and un- 
reserved confidence, and a feeling that there was a secret 
and fundamental difierence in our apprehension of the ideas 
which are contained in the forms rf Catholic language. I 
have since discovered w^hat this difierence was, and I see now 
that he really believed in an invisible, ideal Catholic Church 
only, and in no other outvv^ard, visible unity, except that which 
is completed in a single bishop and congregation. This explains 
a remark made at that time by my father, who is thoroughly 
acquainted with the Protestant theology, on one of the bishop's 
essays ; that, except his doctrine of three orders in the ministry, 
he was a pure Congregationalist. Mr. Newman, also, held 
the same view, until quite a late period in his Anglican 
life, as appears from his '' Apologia." In Bishop Whitting- 
ham's own eyes, he was himself the equivalent of the whole 
Catholic episcopate. Consequently, what he and his col- 
leagues and predecessors in the Anglican Church had decreed 
had full Catholic authority, and was just as final and authori- 
tative as if the whole world had taken part in it. Hence 
the assertion of a despotic, exclusive authority of the Angli- 
can Church, concentrated in his person, over every one who 
acknowledged his jurisdiction. lie would not permit us to 
attend any Catholic services, or read any Catholic books, as 
an ordinary thing. I read the tract of Natalis Alexander 
on the Eucharist, and the Life of St. Francis of Sales, in his 
library, before he made his prohibition. Afterward, he gave 
me himself a volume of Tirinus's Commentary on the Holy 
Scriptures; and these were the only Catholic books I read 
while I was in his family. I was very anxious to read Moh- 
ler's " Symbolism," but I did not ; nor did I read Ward's 
" Ideal af a Christian Church ;" because he desired me not 



60 MEMOIR OF 

to do SD. I even gave up using approved Anglican books of 
devotion in cliurcli, because he expressed his disapprobation 
of using any other book but the " Common Prayer/ ' Mr. 
Baker was equally obedient with myself at that lime ; 
although afterward, when he was governed more by com- 
mon-sense and a just sentiment of his own rights, he read 
whatever he thought proper. It was Anglican books which 
brought us onward toward the Catholic Church, and the 
attempt to live up to and carry out Anglo-Catholic prin- 
ciples. Those who are familiar with the Anglo-Catholic 
movement will understand at once what these principles and 
doctrines were. But for the information of others it may be 
proper to state them distinctly, as they were understood by 
Mr. Baker, and others like him, who approximated more or 
less toward the Catholic Church, whether they eventually 
joined her communion or not : 

1. The visible unity of the Catholic Church. 

2. The final authority of the Church in deciding doctrine, 
and the authority of General Councils. 

3. The necessity of an Apostolic Succession, and the divine 
institution of the episcopate, 

4. Baptismal Regeneration and Sacramental Grace. 

5. The strictly sacerdotal character of the priesthood, in- 
cluding the power of consecrating, and of absolution. 

6. The Real Presence in the Eucharist. 

Y. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist. 

8. The propriety of praying for the dead. 

9. The merit of voluntary chastity, poverty, and obedience, 
and of penitential works. 

10. The value of ceremonies in religion, and the sanctity 
of holy places and holy things. 

However certain persons may modify and explain certain 
of these doctrines, no one can deny that the general drift of 
the writings of the Oxford or Anglo-Catholic school, together 
with that of the writings of the ancient Fathers and of tlio 



BEV. PKANCIS A. BAKER. 61 

earlier English divines whicli are translated or republished 
Dy them, was to create and strengthen a belief in these doc- 
trines. They were allowed to be tenable without infidelity to 
the Anglican Church, by persons in authority and others, who 
were themselves lower and more Protestant in their opinions. 
Now, I will take for a moment the position of an Anglo- 
Catholic, and, upon the basis of the principles I have just 
enunciated, I will prove that an attitude of hostility to the 
Roman Church is wrong and absurd, and that the only con- 
sistent and tenable ground is that now taken by the Union 
ists, represented by the Union Review, 

" The Latin, Greek, and Anglican branches of the Catholic 
Church constitute but One Visible Church, though their 
unity is impaired and in part interrupted by mutual estrange- 
ment. As a member of the Anglican Church, I look upon 
the Greek Church as essentially sound and orthodox, and, if 
allowed to do so, would wish to receive the sacraments, or, if 
a clergyman, to officiate as such, in the churches of that Rite, 
if I happened to be in a place where it was established. I 
look upon the Latin Church, whose doctrine is the same with 
that of the Greek Chm-ch, with the single exception of the 
Papal Supremacy, in precisely the sam^ light. Whate^ver I 
may think of the extent of power claimed by the Bishop of 
Rome, I must allow that, in a state of perfect intercommu- 
nion between all parts of the Church, the chief place in the 
Catholic hierarchy and the right of presidency in a f^eneral 
council belong to him. It is most desirable that the Greek 
and Anos:lican Churches should be restored a^rain to commu- 
nion with the Roman Church, and all controversies respect- 
ing doctrine be definitely settled. Meanwhile, the spirit of 
charity ought to be cultivated, and all possible means taken 
to remove prejudice and misunderstanding. In the present 
state of confusion and irregularity, the ancient canons re- 
specting one bishop in a city cannot be considered as binding ; 
and therefore Roman, Greek, and Anglican congregations. 



62 MEMOIR OF 

formed under the authority of bishops who are in regular 
communion with their own branch, are equally legitimate 
and Catholic, wherever they may be. The decisions of the 
particular national synods of the Anglican branch have no 
final authority, and are only binding so far as they declare 
the doctrines of the Universal Church. They are to be in- 
terpreted in the ' Catholic sense,' and are strictly obligatory 
only on those who have made a promise to maintain them, 
and upon those only in the sense in which they are imposed 
by authority, under censure. It is the Catholic Oh*m:*ch, and 
not t-]ie Chui'ch of England or the Protestant Episcopal Church 
of the United States, of which I am a member by baptism, 
and therefore I have no duties to either of those ecclesiastical 
organizations, except such as arise out of their relation to the 
great Catholic body, and are compatible with the absolute 
allegiance I owe to its teaching and laws." 

Such I conceive to be a statement of the only view an An- 
glican can consistently take, unless he plants himself upon 
the common Protestant ground. According to this, it is 
ridiculous for him to abstain from going to Catholic services, 
reading Catholic books, and cultivating the acquaintance of 
Catholic clergymen and lay-people. The pretence of depos- 
ing or degrading clergymen, because they pass to the commu- 
nion of Rome, is an absurd and impotent attempt at retalia 
tion. What sin can there be in going from St. Paul's Church, 
where the Mass is in English, celebrated by a priest of the 
Anglican Rite, under the obedience of the Catholic Bishop 
Whittingham, to the Cathedral, where the Mass is in Latin, 
celebrated by a priest of the Latin Rite, under the obedience 
of the Catholic Archbishop Spalding ? IIow can there be 
the guilt of apostasy involved in such an act ? How can a 
person " abjure the Catholic Communion" at Rome, by join- 
ing that which is confessedly the principal branch of the 
Catholic Church ? 

A person who believes in this theory of branches maj^ say 



EEV. FEANCIS A. BAKER 68 

it is inexpedient and unwise for individuals to leave their 
particular connection, that it perpetuates the estrangement, 
and that it is better to wait for the time when the " English 
Branch " will be reunited bodily to the parent tree. They 
cannot pretend, however, that this is any thing more than a 
matter of private opinion. The only legitimate means they 
have for keeping their adherents from leaving them are argu- 
ment and persuasion. It avails nothing to say that if free 
access to Roman Catholic services and books, and, in general, 
free intercourse with us is permitted, and the charge of schism, 
violation of baptismal or ordination obligations, &c., is aban- 
doned, we shall gain over a great number of their members. 
"What of that ? Those who adopt a theory are bound to ad- 
here to it. If this Anglo-Catholic theory has any thing in it, 
it ought to be able to sustain the shock of a collision. We 
have nothing but argument and persuasion on our side. Why 
should their influence be dreaded? If Catholic principles, 
sympathies, and practices gra^dtate toward Rome, let them 
gravitate ; it is a sign that the centre of gravity is there. 
That the Oxford movement did gravitate toward Rome by 
its original force is a plain fact, proved by the number, the 
character, and the acts of those who have become converts to 
the Catholic Church. JSTot that their testimony is a direct 
proof that the Catholic Church is divine and infallible. This 
rests on extrinsic, objective evidence. But it is a direct proof 
that the pretence of the Catholicity of the Anglican commu- 
iiioii cannot fiu^nish full and complete satisfaction to consci- 
entious minds that have imbibed Catholic principles. It prr>- 
fessed to do so ; but it lias failed. Those who still cling to 
it cannot deny that the dissemination of their views generally 
produces in those who embrace them, at some period of their 
rii-ental history, a deep misgi^dng respecting the safety of their 
position. This is not so in the Catholic Church. Catholics, 
who retain a firm faith in the principles of Catholicity, and 
endeavor to obey their consciences, never have a misgiving 



64 MEMOIR OF 

that they are out of the Church, or that there is any other 
Church whicli lias a better claim to be regarded as the Catho 
lie Church. If human reason has any certitude, if the human 
mind is governed by any fixed laws, if tlie concurrent judg- 
ments and convictions of great numbers of the wisest and beet 
men have any value, if there is any such thing as logic, these 
considerations ought to have weight. 

But I am weary of chasing this Protean phantom of 
Anglo-Catholicism through its shifting disguises, and its laby- 
rinthine mazes. And I gladly return to the theme of my 
narrative. 

Francis Baker was ordained deacon on the 16th of Febru- 
ary, 1845, and in the following August was appointed assist- 
ant minister of St. Paul's Church. During the interval he 
was performing occasional duty in assisting the rectors of 
different parishes in Baltimore, under the bishop's direction. 
His first sermon was preached in St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, 
on the Sunday afternoon of his ordination day, which was 
the Second Sunday of Lent. On the evening of the same day 
he preached at St. Peter'^. His text was taken from the 
I. Epist. John, iv. 4 : "And this is the victory that overcometh the 
world^ even our fdithp It was a beautiful sermon, and per- 
fectly Catholic in its doctrine and tojie. I regret that it is not 
extant, for I think that if it were, it would be worthy of a 
place among the sermons published in this volume. In it he 
extolled a life of virginity in glowing language, as the means 
of a closer union with Christ ; and its whole scope was to 
present the lives of those who have renounced the world, as 
models of the highest Christian perfection. I read prayers 
for him that evening, and we walked home afterward 
together. We separated in silence, neither of us ex]:>reBsing 
his thoughts, but both seeming to feel a kind of blank and 
unwilling sense of disappointment, as if dimly conscious; that 
our Catholicity was an unreal and imaginary thing. At St. 
Paul's Church his eloquence took the congregation completely 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 66 

t>y surprise. His quiet, unassuming character had ujt pre- 
pared even his friends to expect that he would manifest so 
much power as a preacher. From this time his reputation was 
fixed at the highest point, and he always sustained it. There 
were several very excellent preachers in the Maryland 
Diocese, but I believe it was generally admitted that Mr. 
Baker surpassed them all, and the most intellectual and 
cultivated people ever looked upon his sermons as affording 
to their minds and hearts one of the choicest banquets they 
were capable of enjoying. I have never known a young 
clergyman to be more generally and warmly admired and 
loved than Mr. Baker. Nevertheless, applause and popular- 
ity did not affect him in the least, and the pure mirror of his 
soul was never tarnished by vanity and self-complacency. 
Even then, his spontaneous desires and longings seemed to 
forecast the apostolic vocation which was in store for him. 
He had an ardent desire for a religious life, and was especially 
attracted by the character and life of Nicholas Ferrar, and 
by the history of the little religious community which he 
formed at Little-Gidding. In our walks we often conversed 
about the practicability of establishing a religious house 
w}:Ich would give us the opportunity of working among the 
neglected masses of the people, and looked about for some 
suitable building for this purpose. There was a scheme 
talked of for establishing a monastic and missionary institute 
on the eastern shore of Maryland, and there were eight or 
ten clergymen who would have been eager to join in tin 
enterprise if the bishop had been courageous enough to begin 
it. But the fear of Low Churchmen prevailed, and nothing 
was ever done. We very soon found that the work of " Cathol- 
icizing" the Episcopal Church in Maryland got on very 
slowly and miserably, through the open opposition of the 
Low Church party, and the dead, inert resistance of the old 
High Church. At an early period of Bishop Whittingham's 
administration, the Rev. Henry V. D. Johns, rector of 



66 MEMOIR OF 

Christ Cliurch, bade liim open defiance, and preserved that 
attitude until his death, many years afterward. The bishop 
preached and published two remarkably learned and able ser- 
mons on the priesthood, one of which was preached at the 
institution of Mr. Johns. At the close of it he exhorted the 
parishioners to receive their new rector as their divinely- 
appointed teacher, and to submit to his instructions with 
docility. The same night, Mr. Johns preached a sermon 
which contained a violent attack on the bishop's doctrine, 
and made a solemn declaration, sanctioned by an appeal to 
Heaven, that he would evermore oppose that doctrine, and 
preach the contrary in his pulpit. This was the signal for 
hostilities, and a sharp controversy arose out of the afi*air, 
which was renewed from time to time, as occasion offered. 
The bishop made one or two more efforts to bring out his 
Reformed Catholicism in sermons or charges, and then 
desisted, seeming to be more anxious to defend himself against 
the charge of Popery than to attack Protestantism. In 
regard to the outward ceremonial of religion,, the efforts 
made to improve it were equally feeble and abortive. There 
was a miserable little church in an obscure street, called St. 
Stephen's, with an altar something like a marble-topped wash- 
stand, and some curtains covered with roughly-executed 
symbols, such as mitres, chalices, keys, etc., where we played 
a little at Catholics with so much success that a good old lady 
said it was worse than the Cathedral. The opposition which 
was excited by these innocent and absurd little ecclesiological 
essays were such that the parish was nearly ruined, and the 
rector in great alarm speedily banished all innovations, and 
brought his chancel and his windows back to the old-fashioned 
style. There was a little preaching in the surplice, a little 
display of crosses, and a great deal of Catholic talk in private 
circles, and very little else. The attempt to make the Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church in Maryland exhibit herself as the 
Eeformed Catholic Church was a most signal failure. The 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKEE. 67 

True Catholic labored faithfully to defend Mr. JS'ewman 
from the charge of Eomanizing until he actually joined the 
Catholic Church, and then took to decrying him and other 
converts as much as possible. It then took up Archdeacon 
Manning, H. W. Wilberforce, and Marshall, loading its 
pages with extracts from their writings, until all these 
gentlemen followed Mr. Newman's example. What it did 
afterward, and whether it has survived until the present 
time or not, I do not know. The cassocks were silently and 
gradually dropped. Some of the young clergymen married, 
and took to walking sedately in the old paths, and others left 
the diocese. The few who could not unlearn or forget the 
Catholic principles they had imbibed, retired into themselves 
and kept quiet. And thus matters went back to their old 
condition of a sort of uneasy compromise between High and 
Low Church, on the basis of a common hostility to Rome. 

1 remember well the startling effect produced by the news 
of Mr. jSTewman's conversion. Whatever his modesty may 
induce him to say in disclaimer, he was the leader, the life, 
and the soul, of the Oxford movement : his genius and char- 
acter had acquired for him in this country, as well as in Eng- 
land, a sway over a multitude of minds such as is seldom 
possessed by any living man. The news of his conversion 
was brought to Baltimore by Bishop Reynolds, of Charles- 
ton, who had just arrived from Em ope. I heard it from 
Bishop Wliittingham, one evening, after I had been to 
prayers in St. PauPs. I passed him on the steps and went 
out, and heard him say in a sorrowful tone, " IlTewman has 
gone." It went to my heart as if I had heard of my father's 
death. I did not wish to speak with any one on the subject, 
for, although I was not prepared to follow him, yet I could 
not speak harshly or light/ y of the decision of a man whose 
wisdom and goodness I venerated so highly, or endure to 
hear the comments of others. Mr. Baker and I had no op- 
portumty to converse together very much on this matter, or 



68 MEMOIR OF 

indeed on any other. Our separation was at hand, under 
circumstances painful and trying to both. He was confined 
to the chamber of his brother Alfred, who was dangerously 
ill with the varioloid, and, of course, could neither make or 
receive any visits. I was obliged to leave Baltimore a few 
days after, for North Carolina, by the order of my physician. 
I took a hurried farewell of Mr. Baker, at the door of his 
house, with very little expectation, on either side, of ever 
meeting again. He had assisted me very frequently in the 
duties of my little parish in the suburbs, during several 
months of declining health, and after my departure he con- 
tinued to visit the congregation and preach for them occa- 
sionally. It was during the autumn of 1845 that I left Bal- 
timore. At the close of the Holy Week of 1846 I was re- 
ceived into the Catholic Church, at Charleston, S. C, and in 
March, 1847, I was ordained priest by the Eight Bev. Dr. 
Reynolds, the bishop of the diocese. 

Before leaving Edenton, IST. C, where I resided during the 
previous winter, I wrote to Mr. Baker to inform him of my 
intention, and I continued to write to him occasionally, re- 
ceiving letters from him in return, for some months after- 
ward. The correspondence on his part soon became con 
strained and formal, and at last was stopped at his request. 
For the three years, immediately following my ordination, I 
saw or heard nothing of him. I continued to hope for his 
conversion, and often offered up the Holy Sacrifice for that 
intention. By degrees, however, the thought of him passed 
away from my mind, and I ceased to anticipate that the 
broken thread of our friendship would ever be re-united. I 
supposed that he had become permanently settled at some 
halting-place between Protestantism and the Catholic Church, 
and would live and die contentedly in his chosen position as 
an Episcopalian clergyman, forgetting his earlier and nobler 
aspirations as among the dreams of youth. For the history 
of his mind during this period, I am indebted to the letters 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 69 

wliicli he continued to write to the bosom friend who haa 
been already spoken of, and the information which that friend 
has given me personally. I am also indebted to the same source, 
chi&fly, for the history of his progress toward Catholicity, 
during the entire period of seven years which elapsed before 
his reception into the Catholic Church. For, although I saw 
him repeatedly during the last three years of this period, he 
was extremely guarded and reserved in his language ; and 
during our common life together, as Catholics, afterward, I 
never asked him for any detailed account — the subject hav- 
ing, in great measure, lost its interest for us both. 

I have reason to believe that at th^ time of my conversion 
he had his misgivings, and indeed his first letters to me 
showed a disposition on his part to enter into a free discus- 
sion of the matter with me. He soon quieted these misgiv- 
ings, however, and determined to throw himself heart and 
soul into the work of realizing Catholicity in his own Church. 
He even underwent a reaction which awoke a feeling of 
hostility to the Roman Church, and of anger against me, for 
having, as he expressed it, " spoiled their plans." His good 
and true friend of past days, who had continually encouraged 
and urged him on from the first to follow boldly in the foot- 
steps of those who led the advance of the Oxford movement, 
would not, however, permit him to rest in this state. He 
was determined himself not to shut his eyes to the difiiculties 
and perplexities of his position, and he would not allow his 
friend to do it. He never ceased to unbosom freely all his 
own doubts and disquietudes, to communicate the results of 
his continual reading and reflection, and to stimulate his 
friend to push on in the study of Catholic principles and 
doctrines until he had reached a final and satisfactory result. 
Judging from the letters of Mr. Baker which I have before 
me, I should think that both his misgivings about his own 
position and his bitter feelings toward the Roman Chm'ch 
gave place to a quiet resolution of adhering to the position he 



70 MEMOIR OF 

had taken, before Mr. Newman's conversion and that of 
others of lesser note had startled his repose. For two or 
three years his letters do not indicate a disquieted mind, hut 
are often full of hope for the prospects of the Anglican com- 
munion. By degrees a change is manifest, and it is easy to 
see the progress of a conviction slowly forcing itself upon 
him that the Episcopal Church is essentially Protestant, and 
all the efforts made to place her in a Catholic light and atti- 
tude a mere illusion. The workings of a mind and heart 
ctruggling with doubt and disquiet, weary of a hollow and 
unreal system, weaned from all worldly hopes, detaching 
itself from all earthly ties, and striving after the truth and' 
after God, become more and more manifest, until at last, 
after seven long years, the result is reached* I have hesitated 
much before determining to insert a portion of these letters 
in this narrative. Certain motives of delicacy toward my 
departed friend and others would incline me to withhold 
them. But their perusal has seemed to me to exhibit so 
much more clearly than any narrative of mine could do, the 
transparent purity of the heart from which they emanated, 
and the wonderful workings of divine grace upon it, that I 
have judged it best to prefer the profit of those who will 
read this book to private feeling. Some of them, which are 
merely descriptive, I have inserted, because there could be 
no reason for withholding them, and they will give pleasure 
to the friends of the writer, who value every thing which 
eame from his pen. In regard to others, which were private 
and confidential, I have used the utmost caution to select 
only those portions which are necessary to a full exhibition 
of the writer's gradual progress to the Catholic Church. 

I will first quote some extracts from the correspondence of 
an earlier period, which show the first blossoms of the later 
ripened fruit of Catholic faith and holiness in the pure and 
upright soul of Francis Baker, 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 71 

FROM TEANCIS A. BAKER TO DWIGHT E. LYMAN. 

"Baltimoee, February 20, 1843. 
" My D2:ar Dwight : 

•X- 4f 4f -H- 4f ^ ^ 

" Of course you have seen tlie letter ' Quare Impedit.' Is 
it not very caustic ? I cannot but think it defective in the 
non-erpression of what the ^vriter doubtless believed, the 
sense in which the Council of Trent's words as to ' immola- 
tion' are true. It does not sufficiently bring out the true 
and unfigurative sense in which the sacrifice on the altar is 
the same with the sacrifice on the cross. "^ ^ "^ 

" As I go on with my studies, my dear Dwight, T become 
more and more attracted to them, and, I hope, more and 
more of a Catholic. Indeed, I seem to myself to live in a 
different world from that around me, and to be practical 1 
find one of the most difficult attainments. But to be frank 
with you, in looking forward to the future, the situation of 
a parish priest seldom fills my mind. I almost always look 
to the monastic life in some of its modifications. It is true 
that on the score of fitness I have no right to look forward to 
such privileges ; but from some circumstances which you will 
appreciate, my heart has been drawn more entirely from the 
woild than most persons of my age. But the future belongs 
to God, and I must now prepare myself for the duties which 
seem pointed out to me. I have not spoken to any one else 
of this long-cherished desire, and, indeed, there are at present 
insurmountable difficulties in the way; but I do not look 
uj>on it is as so visionary a scheme as I once did. ^ -^f 4f 
^' Your brother told me of his intended repairs in his church. 
I am delighted to hear it. It will not be long, I hope, before 
such is the universal arrangement of our churches. Onlj^ 
one thing will be lacking (if he has a cross), the candlesticks, 
I have come to the conclusion that we have a perfect right 
to them, for they will come in by the Church common-law, 



72 MEMOIR OF 

as tlie surplice did. I do not suppose it would be proper for 
a priest to introduce them without his ordinary^s .sBTiCiion. I 
do wish a charge would come out recommending the Cath- 
olic usages. I don't give any weight to the cry of some 
about us, to wait for such things until Catholic doctrines are 
received. I cannot but think that such things would have a 
reflex influence on doctrine. While we are externally so 
identified with the Protestants, it will be hard to convince 
the world that we have any claims to antiquity or Catholi- 
city. Pray use your influence to have a solid altar, and as 
large as may be." ^ "^ ^ 

"Baltimoee, June 9, 1843. 
" It was a great disappointment to me not seeing yon 
here at the Convention, and there has been going on here so 
much of interest to you. The Eoman Council you have 
heard all about, I am sure. I was not present, of course, at 
any of their services or meetings, nor did I see any of their 
processions, but from all I have heard, and from what I have 
seen at other times, I think it must have been a most glo- 
rious spectacle. I do not think I am fond of pageantry, but 
it must have been heart-stirring to see the Church coming 
out of the sanctuary which she has in her own bosom, and 
going forth to take possession of the world in the name of 
her ascended Lord. Imagine a band of sixteen venerable 
bishops, with surpliced acolyths and vested priests, with 
their lights and cross and crosier, all chanting in murmur- 
ing responses some old processional chant; the eflfect of 
the whole heightened by the brightness of a May sun re- 
flected from many a golden stole and glittering mitre ! I am 
sure the sight vould have set you crazy. Indeed, I feared 
myself that it would present an unfortunate contrast with 
our neat, dns^ coat clergy. But our own (Convention had far 
moi'e of nn ecclesiastii^al appearance this year than it ever 
had before, l^he daily matins at six o'clock, the Litany at 



KEV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 73 

Aine, and the full Mass service at twelve, all seemed as if we 
were suddenly transplanted into some other age of the 
church, when she understood and realized her heavenly mis- 
sion better than in these later days. Every day after the 
reading of the Gospel, all joined in a solemn profession of 
the old Nicene faith ; then the Holy Sacrifice was offered, and 
all were allowed to partake of the Holy Mysteries." ^ ^ 

'* Baltimore, June 9, 1845. 
" When the ordination is appointed, if possible, I will let 
you know ; and if you are disposed to treat me better than I 
did you, I should be truly glad to see you here on that oc- 
casion. At all events, my dear Dwight, do not forget to 
pray for me. I regret exceedingly that the advantage of 
the regular Ember season will be lost to me, for I feel in 
need of all the assistance which the united prayers of the 
Holy Church might be expected to procure. As soon after 
my ordination as may be, I wish to go to work in such a de- 
partment as may be assigned me by the will of God and the 
direction of the bishop. I wish not ' to choose my way,' 
but as far as possible to submit to the direction of others, 
my superiors ; for that I believe to be the very secret of 
ministerial influence. In my case, however, there can hardly 
be any trial of virtue in this course, for with such a bishop 
as God has placed over us, submission is no sacrifice. I have 
deliberately resolved to maintain a single life, and acquainted 
the bishop with my determination. I think he approved of 
ray resolution, though he dissuaded me from taking a vow 
to that effect. Although I acquiesced in his advice, yet I 
shall consider myself from the date of my ordination pledged 
to preserve that state, by the grace of God. All this ia 
strictly between ourselves,' for I abhor to talk about such 
things. I consider this a matter, in our Church at least, of 
strictly individual choice, and while I have no hesitation my- 
self in adopting the course I have mentioned, I should do- 
4 



74 MEMOIR OF 

spise myself and think but poorly of my own motives, if I 
should ever think less of another for exercising differently 
his Christian liberty." ^ ^' ^ 

The foregoing extracts are taken from letters written be- 
fore the time of my leaving Baltimore, and of course, there- 
fore, before the thought of joining the Catholic Church had 
entered any of our minds. Those which follow were written 
at various times during the period of seven years, between 
1846 and 1853, which was the period of transition in Mr. 
Baker's mind, ending in his conversion. 

''Baltimore, July 9, 1846. 

^' Every thing has been remarkably quiet in Baltimore for 
the last month. There seems to be nothing of the excite- 
ment that for a while prevailed on the subject of ' Roman ten- 
dencies' and 'perversions.' I know not whether the 'Few 
Thoughts ' of Mr. H., which is just published here, and which 
I suppose you have seen, will awaken controversy ; but 
should suppose not, from the occasion and nature of the pub- 
lication, it being merely an explanation of his own course, 
and written immediately on the determination to take that 
course. I have heard the pamphlet spoken of as ' a weak 
production,' as ' doing Mr. H. no credit.' Are we not too apt 
to speak so of the work of an opponent ? Of course the essay 
is not a learned and systematic argument, nor does it profess 
to be so ; but it is (as it appears to me) honest, to the point, 
and well expressed. I speak this of the production : as an ar- 
gument, it of course resolves into the great Eoman plea of 
Visible Urn^y. ^^^jp. ^UXo--.^ 

" I understand Hiat a Mr. — ^, a presbyter of our Church, 
and alumnus of the General THelogical Seminary, made his 
public abjuration of Protestantism in St. Mary's Chapel, on 
Sunday last. I suppose you have seen the account of 's de- 
fection. I was told, a few days ago, that has made up his 



KEV. FBANCIS A. BAKER. 75 

mind to ' go ;' but as it was a Roman Catholic who told me, 
I did not know but he might be misled. Do you know any 
thing iibout it ? I received, a few days ago, a letter from 
HrTf was merely a friendly letter, without controversy, de- 
scribing his mode of life, written very cheerfully and kindly. 
It will give me pleasure to show it to you when you come to 
Baltimore to see me, to which visit I look forward with 
great pleasure. We will then tallv about all these strange 
events and times, and on our thoughts and feelings concern- 
ing them. Adieu, adieu, my dear friend . Let us keep close to 
each other ; but first, close to God, and in all things obedient 
to His will. Again adieu, my dear, good friend." 

It is easy for one who knew intimately the writer of this 
letter to see that his heart was sad and disquieted when he 
wrote it, although he does not directly say so ; especially from 
the unusual warmth and tenderness of his expressions of at- 
tachment to his friend. About two months after he wrote it, 
the time came for him to pass his examination for priest's 
orders. The circumstances under which his examination took 
place redoubled this disquiet, and caused him to hesitate 
much about receiving ordination. In the course of his ex- 
amination, he was asked if he accepted the Thirty-nine Ar- 
ticles. It appears that he was not able to accept the reason- 
ing of Tract No. 90, upon which he must have gone at his 
ordination to the diaconate, and accordingly he replied boldly 
that he rejected some of the Articles, and could not in any 
way give his assent to them. I do not know how many of 
them he qualified in this way ; but I know that one of them 
was the thirty-first, as to its second section : " Wherefore, 
the Sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said 
that the priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, 
to have remission of pain and guilt, were blasphemous fables 
and dangerous deceits ;" and I think, that, another was the 
twent/-s6cond : " Of Purgatory," etc. A discussion arose 



76 MEMOIR OF 

among his examiners upon the propriety of passing him. Tho 
bishop endeavored to waive the whole question, and succeeded 
in presenting his rejection. The rector of St. Peter's, who 
was tlie chairman of the committee, and whose duty it was 
to present the candidates, declined, however, to present Mr. 
Baker, though, with a singular inconsistency, he privately 
urged him to be ordained. Mr. Baker almost resolved to 
stop where he was, and regretted afterward that he had not 
done so. He suffered himself, however, to be overruled by 
the authority and persuasion of the bishop, and as Dr. Wyatt 
also excused himself from taking the responsibility of pre- 
senting him, he was presented by another presbyter, and 
ordained on the 20th of September, 1846. His health as 
well as his spirits were impaired by these troubles ; and, there- 
fore, a short time afterward he made a trip to the Noi^th, in 
order to recreate both body and mind, and with the hope of 
driving away, by change of scene, the unpleasant thoughts 
which haunted him. In this he was in a measure successful. 
He appears to have made a resolute determination to throw 
himself into his ministry, and to put away all doubt from 
his mind. He went in search of all that was attractive and 
encouraging in his own communion, and his letter, giving 
an account of his trip, shows that his attachment to it was 
deepened and renewed by the impression made on him by 
the beautiful churches, the tasteful and decorous services, and 
the agreeable, intellectual men of congenial spirit with him- 
self, described by him in such a pleasing style. It was after 
this journey that he wrote to me, expressing a firm determin- 
ation to adhere to his chosen position, assigning for his chief 
reason the " signs of life " which he saw in the Episcopal 
Church ; and he soon after, as I have said, dropped his cor- 
respondence with me, as one separated from him by a barrier 
which was never to be passed ovei 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 77 

"Bat.timoee, November 10, 1846. 
" I enjoyed my visit to the North quite as much as your 
or my own expectations promised. I think the jaunt was 
in every way beneficial to me. I spent a week delightfully 
in New York, where a new world, as it were, of churches 
was opened to me, and had a most happy (what I call) heart 
visit to Troy. But you will expect to hear particulars. To 
commence with the commencement, then, what shall 1 say of 
Trinity Church ? In some respects it is far beyond my con- 
ceptions. The first impression was really overpowering. It 
was on Saturday morning, and but for a few minutes, and it 
seemed to me that both externally and internally the build- 
ing was most majestic and beautiful. I next saw it on Sun- 
day morning, to great advantage. It was communion day, 
and fourteen priests in their surplices were in attendance 
(the Convention having adjourned late the night before). The 
church was full, but very orderly — the music grave and 
fine — though I confess to you (pardon my ignorance and 
temerity) it was not exr.ctly as I should have liked. It 
seemed to me to want impressiveiiess or expression. It was 

neither soothing, nor, to me^ very grand. Dr. preached. 

I never saw the Holy Communion celebrated and adminis' 
tered in any church with so fine efiect. The scene, when 
the choir was filled with the worshippers waiting for their 
turn to receive, was truly majestic. On that day I went 
away with a most agreeable impression. After I had been 
there, however, in the week, and especially as I became 
familiar with it, I was very conscious of the great defect and 
coldness of the chancel. The meanness of the altar is pos- 
itively too bad; and the unmeaningness of the heavy altar- 
screen is curious. The window is not just to my taste ; but 
I do not - think so badly of it as some do. On the whole, I 
think there can be no doubt that the chancel is a failure ; but 
the nave is very fine, and the doorway, the organ-gallery, the 
organ, the tower, and the side-porches most beautiful. On 



78 MEMOIR OF 

the afternoon of the Sunday, I went to Grace Church, list- 
ened to the music — exquisite of its kind — saw the images ! ! ! 
looked at the church, and examined the stained windows. I 
cannot agree with you about this building. Certainly it has 
some beauties. The external appearance is very fine, and 
the single figure of our Blessed Lord, in the east window, 
beautiful; but I must say that the whole of the interior 
presented to me a look of finery^ and an absence of solem- 
nity, most unpleasant in the sanctuary. The windows were 
simply distressing. It will seem very Protestant after this 
to say it, but still it is true, that the church looked very like 
a Roman Catholic Church to me; perhaps it would be truer to 
say JRomish. for it seemed to me in keeping with some things 
w^e call by this name. I was disappointed in Grace Church ; for 
I went prepared to like it, ft-om your representation, and 
from my confidence in your taste. 

" JSText in order of my seeing, but really, perhaps, first of all, 
is the Church of the Holy Communion. This is really a gem. 
I was there at evening prayer on a week-day, and I left with 
a grateful heart that it was granted me to worship there. I 
am not much of an architect, but the building seemed to me 
perfect. I at least had no fault to find with it. The services 
were read at the chancel rail. The canticles were chanted 
with the organ accompaniment. It was at once solemn and 
very beautiful. I said I had no fault to find. Perhaps that 
is too much. I do think there is an absence of warmth in 
the colors of the church, and of a certain grace and bright- 
ness about the chancel, which would be entirely obviated by 
substituting, instead of the present altar, a white or colored 
marble one of the same size, adorned with candlesticks and 
covered with a lace cloth. This, however, is to make it a 
perfect church for my eye, and I am not at all sure that I am 
right. 

'' I said Troy was the most agreeable place I had visited. 
Ton will not need to be told what it was which gave it this 



EEV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 79 

interest : the Churcli of tlie Holy Cross. Oh, how glorious 
that enterprise is ! How perfectly devotional and elevating 
those services ! I was made very, very happy by this visit. 
It seemed unearthly, and it seemed, too, a promise of better 
and holier days, a harbinger of returning glory to our de- 
pressed Church. Could you not introduce this service into 
the college. It is worth a very great effort. Nothing else 
can produce such an effect as the choral service. "With the 
material you have, I should not think it would be impossible, 
and at nothing short of this ought you to stop. I formed a 
valuable acquaintance with, and had the pleasure of visiting 
all the clergy of the place, who are remarkably united, and 
who received me with Southern warmth and cordiality. I 
was at the Church of the Holy Cross as often as it was possi- 
ble for me to be there, you may be sure, and left it at the 
last with real regret. I consider this visit alone fully repaid 
me for the journey." ^ ^ ^ 

From this time there is not a trace of disquietude with 
his position to be observed in his correspondence, until 
1849. Under date of February, 1847, he writes to his friend, 
who, as it appears from his own declarations, was the only 
intimate friend he had among his brother clergymen: "I 
still write now and then to H., but there is such a restriction 
on the freedom of thought and expression in speaking to him, 
that I have but very little interest in the correspondence; 
indeed I think it hardly likely long to continue ; but from 
you there is no need or wish on my part to conceal any thing. 
* ^ ^ I long to leave St. Paul's. I do not say this to 
any one here, for nothing is gained of talking ; but to you I 
say that I am obliged constantly to fall back on the reflection 
that, until some other way is opened, my duty lies here. It is 
not on account of any disagreeables in my position ; but there 
are peculiar dangers and diJaSculties attending it, and I cannot 
help fearing constantly that my life is too easy and too soft 



80 MEMOIR OF 

to please God. Still I see not whicli way to move. I think 
I wish to submit myself entirely to the Divine "Will. I hope 
it will not seem impertinent, dear Dwight, to expi-ess a hope 
that this coming Lent may be a season of strict discipline to 
us both. Oh, I need" it ! I cannot tell you how the sense of 
responsibility concerning the souls of others sometimes alarms 
me. I can say this to you, without hypocrisy, I trust. I need 
to be purged by penance very, very much, to be drawn away 
from pride and vain-glory, and slothfulness and self-will ; 
these are my besetting sins ; and to be stirred up to diligent 
study, to obedience, to humility^ to labor, and to prayer. I 
pray that I may have the grace to fulfil the work which God 
has put in my heart to undertake this Lent, that He would 
draw me away from all things else, entirely to be united to 
Him. It would be a most pleasant thought that we were 
thus entering on this penitential season together." 

The following extract from a letter of June 23, 1848, 
shows the interest which the writer still felt in Mr. New- 
man: — 

" Is it not encouraging to see the stir that has been raised 
in England about Dr. Hampden's nomination ? The secular 
papers all call the opposition a ' Tractarian Movement.' If 
they mean by this that none but Tractarians are engaged in 
it, it is palpably false ; but in another sense it is certainly 
true. I see clearly in the whole matter the fruits of 
that movement, the greater earnestness and zeal for ortho- 
doxy, as such, so different from what would have been ex- 
hibited a quarter of a century ago. And whom are we to 
thank for fixing the brand of heterodoxy upon this man, so 
that he cannot pass off his sophisms upon an unwary Church, 
but the great master to whom we once looked up, to whom 
God gave so clear a vision of the truth and so great a zeai 
to uphold it ? This is the fruit of a seed sown by a hand now 
raised up against us, one of the many gifts by which we keep 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 8l 

bim and his great faculties in remembrance, tliougli, alas ! 
' we now see him no more.' " 

In one of these letters Mr. Baker speaks of his desire to 
leave St. Paul's Church for some other field of labor. 'Never- 
theless, he remained there six years out of the eight years of 
his Protestant ministry. In 1848 he received an invitation 
to the Church of St. James the Less, a very beautiful and 
costly, though small church, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, 
built after the style of the English Benedictine abbey- 
churches, and fitted up after the manner which delights the 
Anglo-Catholic heart. This invitation he declined, at the 
request of his bishop, who was naturally loth to part with 
him. A proposal was then made that he should found a new 
parish ; and this, I suppose, was the plan afterward carried 
out at St. Luke's. This plan w^as postponed fi^om time to 
time on account of the precarious health of Alfred Baker. 
Meanwhile, he devoted himself most assiduously to his pri- 
vate religious exercises and to his ministerial labors. I have 
never known a young clergyman more universally and 
warmly loved and admired than he was among the people 
of his communion. He improved sedulously his admirable 
gifts for preaching, and in a diocese containing a number of 
excellent preachers, he attained and kept the first rank. His 
fastidious taste and sense of propriety led him soon to drop 
the long cassock, and every thing else in outward dress and 
demeanor which had appeared singular in the first years of 
his ministry. He avoided controversy and all peculiarities of 
doctrine in his sermons, and confined himself chiefly to those 
truths of religion and those practical points which would be 
received without question by his hearers. Aside from the 
pastoral intercourse which he had with his people, his life 
was very retired. He had the ideal of the Catholic priest- 
hood always in view, and this encompassed his discharge of 
ministerial duties with many practical difiiculties. He felt 
this particularly, as he has often said, in his visits to the sick 

4* 



82 MEMOIR OF 

and dying, on account of tlie want of the proper sacraments, 
and the want of a real and recognized sacerdotal relation. 
Hj3 conld not help feeling always th%t while theoretically he 
regarded himself as a Catholic priest, in point of fact he was 
but a Protestant minister, compelled to fall back on a system 
of subjective pietism, based on Lutheran doctrine, to which 
he had an invincible repugnance, and in wliich his hands 
were tied. 

Meanwhile events were progressing in the English Church 
and producing their reflex action in this country. On the 
one hand, the Oxford movement was still going forward 
under new leaders, and on the other, the Protestant character 
of the Anglican Establishment and its American colony was 
exhibiting itself every day more and more decisively. The 
first great wave that had rolled toward Catholicity had cast up 
those who were foremost on its crest on the Rock of Peter. 
Another wave was rolling forward in the same direction, 
which was destined to bear on its summit still more of 
those who floated on the great sea of doubt and error to 
the same secure refuge. The first converts were given up to 
obloquy, and their influence in every possible way lowered 
or destroyed, by belittling their character, if that was possible, 
or, if not, by inventing specious reasons to show that the 
course they had taken was the result of some personal 
idiosyncrasy, and not the just consequence of their Catholic 
principles. It was stoutly asserted that the movement was 
not responsible for them, and that it did not of itself lead to 
Rome. It began again afresh with new men, new books, 
new projects. Again there was an advanced party, and in due 
time this advanced party began to move Romeward, denying 
as before that it would ever actually arrive at Rome. ]^ever- 
theless, many of its members, some of very high character 
and position, did eventually follow the earlier converts over to 
the Catholic Chm^ch. Others, especially those who were in 
stations of dignity and authority, began to recoil and retract. 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 88 

and call back their followers to the safer ground of the old 
High Church. In this country there was a sad lack of 
earnestness and reality on the part of the majority of those 
who had yielded themselves to Oxford influences, and these 
influences were but faintly felt by the laity. Mr. Baker was, 
however, deeply and sadly in earnest. He had schooled him- 
self into submission to his soi-disant Church and bishop, and 
resolutely determined to believe that he conld think, act, and 
live up to Catholic doctrines and laws where he was. He 
had thrown himself anew into Anglicanism, putting faith in 
its new leaders and the old ones who remained, and confiding 
in the reality and success of their efforts. Long and wearily 
he struggled to hold out in this course, in spite of the daily 
increasing evidence that it was delusive and hopeless. For long 
years he was tossed backward and forward on the waves of 
doubt and uncertainty, sometimes almost gaining a foothold 
on the Eock, and then dashed again backward into the sea. 

Most persons, whether they are Catholics or Protestants, 
will wonder that Mr. Baker, having approached at first, by 
almost a single bound, so near the very threshold of the 
Catholic Church, should have waited and hesitated so long 
before taking the final step over its border. Those who have 
not felt it can hardly understand the strong spell by which 
the system so ably advocated by the Oxford divines capti- 
vated many minds. To those who were deeply imbued 
vdth certain Catholic prepossessions, and yet not emanci- 
pated from the old hereditary prejudice against the Roman 
Church, it offered a compromise which allowed them to 
cherish their prepossessions and yet remain in the reformed 
Church, where they were at home and among their friends, 
and free to select some and reject other Catholic doctrines 
and usages, according to their own private judgment and 
taste. It pretended to give them " a Catholicity more 
Catholic, and an antiquity more ancient" than those of the 
afncient, universal mother and mistress of churches herself. 



84 MEMOIR OF 

OiKje seduced by this specious pretence, there was no end to 
the ingenious arguments, wire-drawn distinctions, fine-spun 
theories, and plausible special pleading by which they were 
detained under its influence. The theory has infinite varia- 
tions, and a fiexibility which accommodates itself to every 
form of doctrine, from the lowest tolerated in the Episcopal 
ministry to the highest advocated in the Union Review. 
This infiuence on the mind and conscience is a very injurious 
one, and tends to disable them from reasoning and deciding, 
in a plain and direct manner, on broad and general prin- 
ciples. Mr. Baker became aware of this afterward, and 
regretted that he had permitted himself to be swayed so 
much by the authority of others instead of following the 
dictates of his own judgment and conscience. It is im- 
possible for me to say whether he was dilatory in following 
the inspirations of divine grace or not. I^o one but God 
can certainly judge how much time is necessary in any 
individual case for the full maturing of the convictions into a 
distinct and undoubting faith. One thing I can assert, how- 
ever, with confidence, and I believe that every one who reads 
the ensuing extracts from Mr. Baker's letters will share the 
same conviction : that he never deliberately quenched the 
light of the Divine Spirit, or refused to follow it from any 
worldly and unworthy motives. He sought for wisdom by 
study, prayer, and a pure life, and although he was slow in 
arriving at a full determination, yet he made a continual 
progress toward it ; and when he reached it, he did not 
shrink from any sacrifice which obedience to God and his 
conscience required of him. 

In a letter under the date of June 4, 1849, after speaking 
of the probability of his leaving St. Paul's, and the uncertainty 
he was in in regard to his future plans, which were interfered 
with by the ill-health of his brother, he thus writes : 

"I missed you at the Convention ; indeed, there are seve- 
ral reasons why I did not enjoy myself at that time. It seemed 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 85 

to me tliat there were but one or two with whom I had any 
real sympathy. There was very little done. The bishop 
could not be present on account of indisposition. K. read 
the bishop's charge. It was able, but thoroughly and strongly 
Protestant. The position it took was perfectly unequivocal ; 
and it places certain people, whose position before was suffi- 
ciently uncomfortable, in a most painful predicament. He 
shuts us up to the very sense of the Articles and Prayer-Book, 
Cbs understood hy the Reformers ; and tells those who cannot 
submit to this, who are willing not to contradict that sense, 
but do not helieve it, he tells them very plainly that they are 
obliged to leave a ministry for which they are no longer com- 
petent. The charge convinces me either that we have here- 
tofore misunderstood the bishop, or that he has fixed himself 
upon a new platform. He now makes the Protestant element 
in our Church's teaching (which is certainly the most prominent 
one in her history) the most authoritative and controlling. It 
appears to me that he ipight as well have said at once that the 
Chui<5h of England was founded at the Reformation. May 
God teach us what we ought to do." 

I have been told by Mr. Baker that the bishop, on some 
occasion, sent him his charge to look over, with the request that 
he would read it for him at the Convention, and that he de- 
clined reading it, on account of his strong objection to the 
doctrine it contained. I suppose that this must have been the 
charge in question. I find no other letter from this date until 
January 9, 1850, under which date he writes at length, and 
begins to unbosom himself more freely than he had done 
before : 

" There was something in your last letter which was par- 
ticularly refreshing to me. It seemed like old times, and 
brought an assurance of sympathy when I had begun deeply 
to feel the want of it. You say that my letter was not so full 
or like myself as some others. There was a reason why it was 
not so, and the same reason has delayed the answer to yo^ir 



86 MEMOIR OF 

last kind favor. I have had many painful and distressing 
thoughts, which I hardly knew how to express to any one ; 
aad it seemed a wrong and cruelty to grieve one's friends 
when every catholic-minded brother had so much to bear on 
his own account. ]^ow that I have decided upon the course 
I will take, I can write more calmly, and with less risk of per- 
plexing others. You will guess the cause of anxiety. My 
conviction of the truth and holiness of Catholic doctrines has 
not diminished since I saw you ; my apprehension of what 
I hold is firmer and more distinct ; my prejudice against some 
things which the Roman Church holds as catholic truths, but 
which we deny, has been shaken ; and while this was enougli 
to make my present position in some respects uncomfortable, 
the longing for a fuller measure of catholic privileges, the 
want of sympathy, the uncertainty, dissension, and mutabili- 
ty among us, and the awful greatness of the claims and 
promises of Rome, made me willing to entertain the thought 
of changing my ecclesiastical relations. On looking back 
upon this state of feeling, there was much that was wrong. I 
felt in many ways the results of past unfaithfulness ; I was 
confused and perplexed ; I was doubtful of my own sincerity. 
Sometimes every thing seemed uncertain to me. But what- 
ever were the causes, and whatever the characteristics of my 
state of mind, I felt, upon a careful examination of myself, 
that the only proper course for me to pursue was to institute 
a candid and diligent search into the claims of 'he Roman 
Church to be the Holy Catholic Church. All her claims 
seem to resolve themselves into that of the supremacy of the 
See of St. Peter, and I accordingly resolved to confine my in- 
vestigations to that point. I communicated my determina- 
tion to the bishop last week, and asked him whether I could 
continue to officiate while I was engaged in such a course. 
He thought I could and ought, and offered me every assist 
ance in his power, in the way of books, advice, etc. He was 
wondei fully kind and forbearing, but firm in assuring m^ 



REV. FRAISrCIS A. BAKER. 87 

that inyestigation of the point would but end in conviction of 
the untenableness of the Roman claim. I have felt calmer 
since I acted thus, and propose to enter forthwith upon the study 
of this question 5 keeping it as clear as I can of exterior mat- 
ters, and pushing it, if I may, to a decision. I need not, I know, 
ask of you the charity to continue your prayers for the Divine 
blessing and guidance to your perplexed friend." 

'' Tuesday Night, 
" You will understand, from what I have been telling you 
of the thoughts which have occupied my mind for some time 
past, how the various events in the Church during the last 
few months have affected me. "With regard to 's depart- 
ure, I confess it was the deepest grief to me, and, in connec- 
tion with other circumstances, did much to distress and 
unsettle me. It is one of the most afflicting things about the 
present controversies, these separations between friend and 
friend, between master and disciple ; yet I know that even 
this is to be borne meekly and obediently, if we cannot see it 
to be our imperative duty to follow those we have loved and 
lost ; and now that I have undertaken in a rational way to 
satisfy myself on this point, I can think more calmly of our 
isolation and bereavement. To return to more Protestant 
ground (I know that it does not suit unlearned people to say 
what they will do, but) I feel is impossible. My conviction 
of the truth of the system (in opposing and barking at which 
Protestantism has its life and occupation) continually increases ; 
but I think I feel that if I could be persuaded that the Divine 
Will made it to be my duty to remain where I am, I could 
submit to all the difficulties and privations of our position 
ancomplainingly and even cheerfully. 

"Bishop Ives's movement, so far as it was intended to in- 
troduce the general practice of auricular confession, had my 
unrestrained sympathy. How far he meant to go in assert- 
ing its necessity^ I confess myself unable to determine ; but 



88 MEMOIR OF 

anyhow, 1 think he went farther than Protestant Ep iscopa- 
lianism will bear him out in going. It was an infinite relief 
to me when he came out as boldly as he did ; and now that 
he has presented the subject anew to the Church, I feel assured 
that the Church will be obliged to meet the question. I confess 
I do not feel very hopeful as to the issue of the controversy, 
for it seems to me that nothing short of a miracle could dis- 
pose the mass of our people to the practice of confession. The 
High Churchmen will be as opposed to it as the Low Church- 
men. Marjdand will kick as much as Ohio. But nous verronsP 
Some time after the date of this letter, Mr. Baker made a 
voj^age to Bermuda with his brother Alfred, who was now in 
a deep and hopeless decline. He returned some time in the 
early part of the ensuing summer. One day, either a little 
before or a little after this voyage, I accidentally met him as 
I was out walking, I had returned once more to Baltimore, 
and was making my novitiate at the House attached to St. 
Alphonsus' Church. It was now nearly five years since I 
had seen my former friend, and three since I had received 
any letters from him. I was startled and pleased at our un- 
expected rencontre, and at the light of friendship which I 
saw in his face and eyes ; but the pain of being separated 
from him was renewed. Mr. Ljnnan came to see me, one 
day, during the spring of 1850, and was much more frank and 
cordial in his manner than Mr. Baker, who kept a close vail 
of reserve over his heart until the last. I inquired of him 
particularly about Mr. Baker, whether he had made any 
retrograde movement, &c. He replied that he had rather 
advanced, and had become more spiritual in his preaching, 
advised me to visit him, and on my objecting to this on the 
ground that a visit might be intrusive and unwelcome, 
assured me of the contrary. It was through his influence 
that some degree of intercourse was from this time re-estab- 
lished between Mr. Baker and myself. A subsequent letter 
of Mr. Baker speaks of his visiting me, and also describes his 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 89 

visit to Bermuda in the following terms. The letter is dated 
October 24, 1850:— 

" On my return from Bermuda, I found your kind and in- 
teresting letter, and felt grateful to you for the friendship 
which you have now continued to me for several years. I 
am sorry not to have seen you when you were in Baltimore, 
and in fact that was the only regret I felt on account of my 
absence from home at the time of the Convention. The Con- 
vention itself I have ceased to look forward to with any pleas- 
ure. The truth is, it always saddens me to mingle at all 
with the clergy promiscuously. I feel that there is so little 
sympathy between us, that the sense of loneliness is forced 
upon me more distinctly than when I keep to myself alto- 
gether. But I do not mean to write gloomily to a friend 
with whom I communicate so seldom, and indeed I do not 
complain of the want of sympathy which I feel, or blame 
others for it. I know that the cause of it is in myself, and I 
acknowledge with gratitude the great degree of indulgence, 
kindness, and forbearance with which I have been univer- 
sally treated. 

" I have felt happier lately, though I do not know why I 
should, for I cannot say that I have gained a satisfactory posi- 
tion ; and when I think of dying, anxious thoughts come 
across me; but I have been pursuing (as my occupation 
allowed me) my investigations into the question of the supre- 
macy, and I wish to abide by the result, without being swayed 
by feeling one way or another. I have read Newman's Dis- 
courses since I received your letter. They are like all that 
he writes, thoughtful, earnest, holy, and deeply impressive; 
but I think they differ from his Parochial Sermons in having 
the appearance of more excited feeling, aad in being more 
affectionate in their tone. He seems to write under a press- 
ing anxiety to influence those he addresses, and he opens his 
hi3art more than he did of old. I think this accounts in part 
for an objection which I have heard brought against them, 



90 MEMOIR OF 

that they are not so strictly logical. He seems to me pos- 
Bessed. with that proselyting spirit which has always apjjeared 
to me to be so divine a token about the Church of Rome, as 
if the constant reflection of his mind was, ' "What shall it 
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his 
own soul?' 

" I was deeply interested in the account of your visit to H. 
I too saw H., but only for a moment. We met on the road, 
and he stopped most kindly, and we had a minute's conver- 
sation. Of course there was nothing but commonplace. I 
know not how he felt, but I felt very sad. 

" Tou may imagine that I have looked with no little interest 
at the progress of ecclesiastical afiairs in England. The 
secessions lately have made a tremendous excitement — more 
so, I really think, than those in 1845, perhaps on account of 
the ' present distress,' 

" I have not much of interest to tell you about Bermuda. 
You know it is an English colony, and I saw there for the 
first time the workings of the English Church. In every thing 
except the Morning and Evening Prayer, I think we have 
the advantage, particularly excepting the latter. The clergy 
I found a hard-working set of men, frank and cordial, and 
very much interested and well informed in matters relating 
to our Church. The churches are very plain, but have a 
quiet, grave, soothing air about them, the clergy mostly 
' High Church,' but not after our sort, and the people seemed 
to me to be almost entirely devoid of a Church tone and 
spirit, though not irreligious. Dissent is very rife, and, I 
fancy, influences even members of the Church. They have a 
noble-hearted bishop. Bishop Field, austere, self-denying, 
devout, hard-w@rking, and charitable, and by his assistance 
they are building a very handsome church on the island ; but 
I found that he was not popular, that even his mode of life 
was objected to : he was called a Piiseyite, I did not preach 
while I was there, but I assisted several of the i^lergy at the 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 91 

services, and once at the holy conimnnion, in which I found 
the omission of ' the oblation ' to have a most painful efiect 
upon my feelings. 

" I was very glad to get so full and gratifying account of 
your church. I do indeed congratulate you on its comple- 
tion. I think you have done wonders, with so many diiS- 
culties, to succeed in so short a time, and I sincerely hope that 
you may find your zeal and labor repaid by an increase of 
your congregation, and of true devotion and earnestness 
among them. From your description of the church I thought 
it must be a very magnificent edifice, quite beyond York 
Minster and churches of that size ; and to see so famous a 
building, and still more to see the kind, warm friend who min- 
isters within it, would be so great a pleasure, that you must 
not be surprised if some old friends should some time make 
a pilgrimage there." 

"January 27, 1851. 

" I often feel what a relief it would be to open one's heart, and 
to have the sympathy and counsel of a friend who can imder- 
stand one's views and feelings. But it is impossible to do so 
by letter, because one shrinks from coolly writing down one's 
thoughts, which would be expressed vathout eftort in the 
warmth and freedom of conversation. Since the receipt of 
yom* letter I saw H. I had determined not to seek him, but 
about the beginning of this month he called on me. He was 
kind, but the visit was not agreeable : it was awkward, I re- 
turned his visit last week, and enjoyed being in his society. 
I talked with him as guardedly as I could while using any 
degree of frankness and cordiality. I could not consent to 
postpone my visit to him, as I had reason to believe that his 
coming to see me was providential, to assist me in the matter 
hi which I am laboring, viz., to ascertain the Catholic Church. 
I asked him several questions concerning the Papal su- 
premacy, which he answered very readily and with great 
Ability. He gave me some assistance in pin-suing layixi- 



92 MEMOIR OF 

quiries, and I promised to see him again before long. 1 came 
away feeling better for having been with him, and with a 
heavy conviction on my mind how little share I had in the 
blessing of the pnre in heart. 

" I find very little time to stndy. The duties which devolve 
upon me take so much of my attention, that I could find it 
in my heart to throw them up, were I not advised otherwise 
by the bishop. Besides, I know that it is only by humility • 
and obedience and fidelity that we can arrive at the truth. 
O Dwight ! again I ask your prayers in my behalf, especially 
for earnestness in seeking the truth, to make the holy vow, 
^ I will not climb up into my bed, nor sufier my eyelids to 
take any rest, until ' I have an obedient spirit to obey God's 
will, directly it is made known. 

" The course of Church matters is to me increasingly un- 
satisfactory. The anti-Papal movement has placed the 
Church of England on decidedly worse ground, if indeed it 
has not bound her to that decision, on rejecting which her 
Catholicity seems to be suspended. I do think that, after all 
that has happened, for bishops and people to be crying up the 
royal supremacy looks like accepting that supremacy to 
the full extent to which it has lately been claimed. What 
did you think of Mr. Bennett's course % To say the truth, I 
was not satisfied with his letters, though I felt a sympathy 
with the man. Pray can you tell me what ground there is 
for the assertion that Archdeacon Manning and Jjir. Dods- 
worth have resigned and are on their way to Jerusalem ?" 

Some time after this, Mr. Baker was appointed rector of 
the new parish of St. Luke's, where he remained until lie 
gave up the Protestant ministry, that is, for about two years. 
During his rectorship he removed to a pleasant residence 
near the site of the church, and employed himself in building 
ft taf^teful Gothic church, which he proposed to finish and 
decorate in accordance with his own idea of ecclesiastical 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 98 

propriety. It was only partially completed at the time he 
left it. His next letter to Mr. Lyman, who was now progress- 
ing rapidly toward the Catholic Church, and nrging forward 
his slower footsteps, is dated 

" Tuesday in Holy Weeh April 15, 1851. 
" I read yonr letter with a great deal of emotion, and was 
prompted to sit down and say a word in reply immediately ; 
but as I have gone to St. Luke's, there were some duties de- 
volving upon me which took up my time more than is usual 
with me. You may be assured of my sympathy in much 
that you feel and express. I do tliink that the statements of 
AUies's book are of a kind which ought to make a profound 
impression upon us, and which ought to modify very much 
the feelings with which we have been taught to regard the 
Koman communion ; and I do think honestly that our Church 
is at present in a miserable condition, and that no good can 
come of denying it. As you say, it becomes at such a time a 
very solemn question, in view of eternity, what we ought to do. 
My dear D wight, I think I am sincere when I say that to 
me the way of duty seems to take pains and make such an 
investigation as I can into the question upon which the 
claim of authority rests, and to abide by the result : mean- 
while to live in prayer and upon such catholic truth as wo 
are permitted to hold, imploring God to take pity upon us, 
and to look upon his distracted people. H. recommended me 
a treatise on the supremacy by the brothers Ballerini, but I 
find that I do not read Latin with such facility as to reap the 
full benefit of the perusal of such a work at present. I have 
therefore taken up Kenrick on the Primacy. With regard 
to my duties as a minister, I have thought it right to be di- 
rected from without, and I was passive in accepting St. 
Luke's, which was strongly urged upon me. Surely we may 
hope that if we faithfully and devoutly, and in a spirit of 
humility and obedience, work with our intention constantly 



94 MEMOm OF 

directed to God's glory and the salvation of souls, He will 
bless and guide us. It was a comfort to me to think you re- 
raembered me and my difficulties in your Lenten exercises, 
and I assure you that you have been constantly remembered 
by your perplexed friend. I feel afraid of myself and of my 
own heart— afraid of taking a wrong step, afraid on account 
of my past sins, afraid when I look forward to the judgment 
of our dear Lord ; and you may be sure that I find prayer my 
greatest comfort, the belief in the intercession of our 
Blessed Mother and the saints in heaven, as well as in the 
value of the supplications of Christians on earth, a source of 
real strength. Pray for me, my dear friend, that I may be 
enabled sincerely to appeal to God and say that His Church 
IB the first objuct of my heart, and that I may be diligent 
and studious and obedient to His grace and to conscience. 

" I see the English papers constantly, and they are full of 
interest. We know not what is before us ; these are heart- 
^.tirring times, and we can but adore the counsel of God by 
which we were born in them^ and anxiously seek to take the 
Slight course amid so many perplexities* I have recently read 
Dr. Pusey's letter to the Bishop of London. It is a very able 
letter, and one calculated to rouse the feelings of the Catholic- 
minded men in England. I confess it made me feel more 
hopeful. 

" If it is our ditty to remain where we are, it is a noble 
thing to be called to labor amid so many discouragements, and, 
Burrounded by temptations, to keep the Catholic Faith whole 
and inviolate 1 Every day I feel a stronger repugnance to 
Protestantism, and a determination by God^s help to carry 
out my principles consistently; but with regard to the Eoman 
Catholic Church, I do not see how intellectually it can dis- 
pense with the theory of development, and I feel a strong 
suspicion of that theory. I went- to see H. again^ but he was 
in Kew York, and will not be back until after Easter. 

" I feel that I am in a difficult and dangerous situation^ but 



KEV. FKANCra A. BAKER, 95 

I have the comfort of knowing that I have the advice of the 
bishop to do as I am doing ; and if I can be sure of God'S 
blessing, by watchfulness and strictness and faithfulness I 
may yet be happy. I have written confidentially, and aE 
about myselfj but you will forgive me. The bell rings for 
prayers* Good-by.-' 

^^ August 4:, 1851. 

" You will be anxious to know the impression made upon 
my mind by what I have been reading on the Roman Catho- 
lic question. On the whole, many difficulties that lay in the 
way have been removed, and the claims of the Roman Be® 
appear far more strongly supported by antiquity than I had 
ever dreamed of before. Kenrick's is, I think, a very strong 
book, although it has a very apologetic ah' ; yet there was a 
great deal in it which seemed to me very forcible. But the 
book which made altogether the most decided impression on 
my mind was ' The Unity of the Episcopate.' The principle 
of unity was there unfolded in a way that was new to me, 
and which I think does away with a whole class of passages 
(and they the strongest) which are usually alleged against 
the Papacy. ^ ^ ^ 

" I find my greatest want to be the want of earnestness and 
a spiritual mind. My dear Dwight, this is not cant. I want 
you to pi*ay that God would not take His Holy Spirit from 
me. I desire above all things to be a Catholic, and I am 
resolved by God's help not to give up the present investiga* 
tion until I am satisfied about my duty, which at present I 
am not, but very, very much harassed and perplexed. May 
God in his good time grant us both to see clearly the way we 
ought to take. I saw H. a few weeks ago, and had a pleasant 
interview. He thinks it possible that he will leave Baltimore 
in September. I have sometimes felt lately a3 if a decision 
of the great question was not far off. Oh, that it may be a 
wise and true decision !" 



96 MJCMOIK OF 

A. few weeks after writing this letter, Mr. Baker came very 
near making a decision to give up his ministry and place liim- 
self under the instruction of a Catholic priest. His convic- 
tion was not yet fully matured, or his doubts quite removed, 
arid the v/isest course would have been for him to have gone 
into a complete retirement for a While, in order to complete 
his studies, and allow his mind and conscience time to ripen 
into a decision. He communicated his state of mind to the 
bishop, and was so far overruled by him as to consent to 
wait a while longer, and postpone his decision. He informs 
his friend of all that took place at this crisis, in a long and 
deeply interesting letter of thirteen pages, from which I shall 
only make a few extracts. It is dated JSTovember 11, 1851, 
and is full of affection, of sadness, and of the tremulous breath- 
ings of a sensitive, delicate conscience, deeply troubled by 
anxiety and fear, almost ready to seek repose in the bosom 
of the Church, but driven back by doubt to struggle yet 
longer with adverse winds. 

He says at the beginning of his letter : '' First let me thank 
you again for your expressions of kindness and affection. 1 
assm^e you I thank you for them, and feel that they, to- 
gether with the friendship which has lasted so long, give you 
a claim on my confidence and love, l^or have I been un- 
mindful of the claim, for I have constantly thought of you, 
and often invoked God's aid in your behalf; and if I have not 
written often, it is because I am myself in great perplexity, 
and feel the responsibility which attaches to every word, 
uttered at a time like this, on subjects which concern the sal- 
vation of ourselves and others also. This was my feeling 
vi'hen I last wrote. I felt as if I wanted a little recollection 
before I could write as I wished on some points ; and as I was 
thf^.n much occupied, I deferred writing fully until some other 
time. However, your letter to-day demands an immediate 
answer, and I proceed to give you an answer to your in- 
quiiies, and a faithful transcript of my feelings, and pray 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 97 

God that you may receive no injury from one who would do 
you good." 

He states the result of his studies quite at length, summing 
it up in these words, which I quote as an accurate index of 
the degree of conviction he had at that time reached : 

" The result of my thought and reading last summer was 
to strengthen my impression that the claims of the Roman 
Catholic Church on the obedience of all Christians are di- 
vine. I cannot say I felt perfectly assured." 

After describing his interview with the bishop, and in- 
forming his friend that he had consented to wait^ he says : 
" I think I agreed to this from the fear of offending God, and 
from that alone. As to the frown of the world, I do not 
think it decided me, for I had looked the consequences of the 
act full in the face, and had accepted them. I was the more 
ready to wait, because I could not say I had no doiibt of the 
propriety of secession." 

The sequel of the letter and of its writer's history shows 
that chis doubt was not a rational doubt, but a morbid irreso- 
lutioii and timidity of mind, which ought to have been disre- 
garded. Consequently, in giving way to it, he simply fell 
back into a state in which he had just to go over again the same 
ground, and this discouraged and disheartened him, as he 
frankly acknowledges. " I felt a sense of relief, partly, I be- 
lieve, from having opened my mind, and partly, I suspect, at 
finding that the sacrifice to which I had looked forward was 
not then demanded. But when I considered the matter, I 
saw tliat I was just where I was before, with the whole ques- 
tion before me and resting on my decision. From week to 
week I have been willing to postpone looking my position in 
the t\>ce, seeking to excuse myself to my conscience by the 
plea of the many unavoidable demands on my time and 
tlioughts which a new parish and a church just commenced 
seem to make ; although I feel that the danger of such a 
course is that I may sink into a worldly, indifferent thing, 

6 



98 MEMOIR OF . 

Beeking in the praise of men a reward for my treachery to 
God. I have seen H. but once since I saw the bishop. Tlie 
visit was more constrained, because I felt I ought not to be- 
tray my feelings ; indeed, I would not go to see II. unless I 
were afraid of resisting some design which God may have 
formed for me — ^because the intercourse has not been of my 
seeking, and this appearance of deceit and double-dealing is 
dreadful to me, and makes me feel as if I were guilty. 

" I have not read any thing since my interview with the 
bishop. My plan is to wait and seriously consider what I 
ought to do. I need not tell you I am not happy. I am 
free from many of the annoyances which distress you, as I 
read no II. C. papers, and scarcely any of our own, and have 
no associate. I strive to live by the rule recommended by 
Dr. Pusey, and am almost as much isolated from Protestants 
as if there were none in our communion. I believe most 
firmly in the Sacrifice of the Mass, in the Eeal Presence, in 
the Veneration of Relics, in the Mediation of the Saints, and 
especially of St. Mary. I constantly beseech God to hear her 
supplications in my behalf, and only do not invoke her be- 
cause I am not sure of the authority for doing so. I b' lieve 
also in Purgatory. My difiiculties are on the subject of 
Church authority and the Supremacy. My sympathy in doc- 
trine, my reverence for the holy men who have gone out 
from us, 7ny strong prepossessions m favor of the Roman 
CatJiolic Churchy which have never left me at any period of 
ray life^ and the distress among us, all draw me to Rome ; 
but the single question I ask myself (or strive to do S'^^) is, 
whether any of these things ought to decide me, and wheiiier 
the point of inquiry ought not to be— What is the Charch ? 
Partly on account of my position, and partly, dear Dwight, 
on cjccount of grave deficiencies and sins in myself, I feel that 
I am full of inconsistencies, contradictions, apparent insiri- 
cerities (perhaps real), presumptuous and fearful at the same 
time, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, not fully per- 



RET. FBAlSrCIS A. BAKER. 99 

Buaded in my own mind, and not bending all my energies 
to become so. And now, my dear Dwiglit, I have only opened 
my heart to yon, witliont at all thinking of the effect it would 
have upon yon. Simply seeking, as in dnty bound, to deal 
with you as a friend, I have let you somewhat into my heart — 
only somewhat, for I deeply feel that to a full understanding 
of my state of feeling, even in reference to this subject, it 
would be needful that I should kneel down and humbly con- 
fess (as it would be a comfort to do) all the many offenses 
in word and deed of a sinful and tangled life. I have hum- 
bled myself before you. I know not how it shall be hereafter 
between us, how differently you may soon look upon me from 
what you have been used to do ; but, wherever you are, think 
of me as a sinner and a penitent, and as one who desires and 
needs your prayers. ^ ^ "^ 

" And now, my dear Mend, I do not think of any thing else 
which I ought to say to you, but to reciprocate the earnest 
hope and the conviction that you express, that God Almighty 
may enable us together to have an abode here in that Ark 
which He has set up as the place of safety and peace in a lost 
world, and may give us together an entrance into His Presence 
forever. May He of His undeserved mercy grant it." 

During the winter of 1851 and 1852, Mr. Baker was very 
much occupied with church-building, and also with the cares 
and anxieties of illness and death in his family, and his at- 
tention was thus drawn away in a measm^e from himself and 
from the question of the Church. 

His next letter of interest was written in May, 1852, com- 
municating the intelligence of the death of his aunt and of 
his brother: 

" I have no doubt that you have thought your kind and 
patient letter deserved an earlier answer, but I have beeu 
greatly and particularly occupied ever since I received it 
When it came. Aunt E. was very ill, and our anxiety about 
her continued to increase until she was taken from us on the 

L. us w. 



100 MEMOIR OF 

31st of January. Immediately after, dear Alfred began to 
decline rapidly, and after an interval of some weeks of great 
suffering on his part, and of watching and sadness on ours, 
he too was taken on the 9th of April (Good Friday). You, 
who knew them both, and knew what place they held in our 
hearts, can imagine the greatness of the bereavement, and the 
depth of our suffering. God has supported us mercifully, and 
I heartily thank Him that I have so great a solace in think- 
ing of the character of our dear departed ones ; and it is at 
such times that I feel the consolatory nature of the doctrine 
of the communion of saints, and the comfort of the practice 
of praying for the dead. To you, who know so much of my 
feelings, I will not deny that the uncertainty which rests upon 
the question of the Church has disturbed the fixedness of my 
hope and faith during this sorrowful winter, but I have not 
been able to advance in its investigation. I now propose to 
resume my studies as regularly and as perseveringly as my 
duties will permit. You are much and often in my thoughts, 
and often do I wish that I could do by you the part of a faithful 
friend. You always have a part in my prayers, and it would 
be to me a great happiness to have the assurance one day 
that my friendship has not been without some benefit to you. 
I assure you I prize it, and I feel more strongly that I have 
more in common with you than wi'h anyone else with whom 
I communicate. I have not the heart nor indeed the time to 
write more." 

'' Septemler 15, 1852. 

" I came away from Columbia with many pleasant, affec- 
tionate thoughts about you, and grateful recollections of 
your kindness, and you have often been in my mind sinco 
my return. You will be glad to learn that my little jaunt 
was of decided service to me. I have been improving in 
liealth ever since my return, and now feel quite well. I sup- 
pose by this time you have been on to the ISTorth and have 
returned, and, like myself, are now quietly settled down to 



EST. FRANCIS A. BAKEB. 101 

your duties. I found my sisters mucli benefited by their 
trip to the sea-shorej and our little household has again re- 
sumed its accustomed habits. I need not tell you, dear 
Dwight, how glad I shall be if you will consent to come on 
now and pay your promised visit. You might come at the 
beginning of the week, and I would go and take your Sun- 
day duties (choose a Sunday when service is all day at Co* 
lumbia), and then I would return on Monday to be with you 
at home another week. I cannot promise to do you good, but 
I can offer you, at least, what you will not receive elsewhere, 
true and affectionate sympathy. I do most deeply feel for 
you in your anxieties, and in much, in very much, I feel 
with you. I felt when I was with you, my dear friend (now 
my only friend), as if the difference between us was thiF • 
that you had really come to a conclusion^ while I w^as still 
of a fearful and divided mind. I felt as if there was some- 
thing dishonorable and disgraceful in such a state of inde- 
cision, while there was an appearance of manliness in your 
boldness and determination, and I was ashamed of myself. 
Besides, I found myself sometimes taking the anti-Eoman 
side in argument with you, and then I was vexed with my- 
self for doing what I did nowhere else, and what I could not 
do heartily anywhere, and I seemed to myself insincere. I 
do not know whether you can understand me, but I want 
you to understand my feelings ; for I do not want you to 
think I mn insincere, and 1 felt so much obliged to you when 
you told me that you said to H. that you did not think me 
so. I believe uncertainty often carries the appearance of 
insincerity ; and uncertain I own myself to be, full of sad- 
ness, full of doubt. O Dwight, what is there in such a 
situation to make one remain in it, if one could conscien- 
tiously leave it ? What could hinder me from being a lio- 
man Catholic but for the fear of doing wrong ? I assure 
you, that as regards this world I have not a hope or desire, 
and tliere is nothing earthly which I could not part with 



102 MEMOIR OF 

tliis night. Notliing seems to me worth living for but the 
knowledge of the truth and the love of God ; and that position 
in which I feel I should be the happiest would be where I 
should be certain what was truth, and could live a life 
hidden from the world with God. I feel concerned at find- 
ing myself writing so much about myself, and in such a 
strain ; but I think, in reading over the letter, you will under- 
stand how I came to do it, and will pardon it. 

" I have been reading lately pretty systematically on the 
Roman question. De Maistre and Lacordaire I have fin- 
ished, and will return them to you if you wish them. They 
are both philosophical rather than theological, and from that 
fact, as well as from the French way in which they are writ- 
ten, I think they will be less influential with persons 
brought up in the school with you and me. I thought the 
remarks of De Maistre on the temporal power of the Popes 
not near so forcible as those in Brownson's Review. Thomp- 
son seems to me now, as he did before, a remarkably cogent 
and attractive writer. I have not finished his pamphlet as 
yet, but feel very much interested in it. I have procured 
Balmez, and Newman on Anglicanism, but have not yet 

read them. When I was in Philadelphia I saw Mr. . 

He called on Manaing when he was in London, and had a 
very interesting interview. M. is about to publish another 
edition of his book on the Unity of the Church. I should 
indeed like to* see it, or any thing else that came from his 
hand. ^ ^ ^ 

" God bless you, my dear friend ; write to me fully and 
freely as of old, and be sure of the affection of your friend, 

" F. A. B.'' 

"-Ash Wednesday, 1853. 
-^ * -sf a rpj^g general tone of your letter, too, was 
likd, and that also fell in with my own feelings, for you may 
i>o sure that the stirring event of the last month ha:> not 



KEV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 103 

been without a great effect on me, agitated as I was before 
by so many serious doubts. Well, another has gone, and 
that the most eminent of the party with which you and I 
have been identified, and you and I remain asking still what 
we are to do ! To me the question has been of late and is 
now one of absorbing and pressing importance, and yet I do not 
know how to answer it, and in my perplexity can do nothing 
but pray — pray, as I have done most earnestly, for direction 
from on high^; and my comfort, dear D wight, is to know that 
you also pray for me. What I want is the heart just to 
stand waiting God's bidding, and, when that is given, to act 
without delay or taking counsel with the flesh. I should 
so much like to see Bishop Ives's Reasons, which I suppose 
will in some way be published. ^ ^ "^ \ received the 
first number of a newspaper from New York, the Church 

Journal (which is most vociferously anti-Roman). is one 

of the editors. By the way, is also connected with 

this paper, and . I felt sorry to think of what a dif- 
ferent spirit they once were ; and yet, if the Church of Rome 
be not what she claims to be, the position of such men as 
Bishop Whittingham is the right one, and ours is untenable.. 
However, I cannot but own that I have a drawing toward 
the Roman Catholic communion so strong that, if I were to 
be without it, I should feel as if I were not myself. I have 
not thought it right to go by this feeling, but it is very 
strong, and I confess I feel envious of Bishop Ives, when I 
think of him in his new home — a feeling which I often have 
in reference to dear H., whom I loved and reverenced so 
truly. (By the way, H., I hear, is either at present in Bal- 
timore, or is about coming here, to conduct a ' mission' in the 
Cathedral.) I often feel afraid, my dear Dwight, in writing 
on such subjects, of doing wrong in expressing, my feelings 
and thoughts, and of doing you harm ; but after all, it seems 
not improper for friends such as we are to speak without re- 
serve, and perhaps I have done so too little. 



104 MEMOIR IF 

" I have been reading a good deal lately. ^' '^ "^ The articles 
on Cyprian (by Dr. Nevin) were indeed most masterly, and 
Beemed to me to express the true doctrine of antiquity as to 
the primacy of the Roman See. Tliey liave caused a good 
deal of speculation on my part. I do not see how the writer 
can fail to become a Roman Catholic. I did not tell you 
what I thought of Newman's book ; it was full of power, 
many most capital hits and brilliant passages, and, what is 
better, satisfactory explanations of difficulties. The eleventh 
lecture seemed to me the least successful, and 1 own, even 
after reading it, the position of the Greek Church, based on a 
theological theory not unlike that which is advocated by 
Anglo-Catholics, and much the same (as Brownson seems to 
think) with that held by many Roman Catholics, does seem 
to me a difficulty. Balmez, too, I have proceeded some 
way with, and am much interested in. 

" I thank you for Brownson very much. I have read the 
number you sent me, and it has set me to thinking. His 
positions are bold and require some reflection ; and though I 
find in him the consistent expression of much that I think I 
always believed, yet he presents many new ideas to me. * ^ 

" Adieu to-night, my dear Dwight. May the blessing of 
Heaven be with you." 

This was the last of these sad epistles — these outbreathings 
of a pure and noble, but troubled spirit, enveloped in the 
obscure night of doubt, and seeking wearily for the light of 
truth. It was written on the first day of Lent, and when that 
Lent had passed by, the clouds of mist had lifted from around 
the soul of Francis Baker, never to return. Before he wrote 
again to his dear friend, the covp de-grace had been given. 
The blow was struck suddenly and efiectually, and the news 
of it came unexpectedly, with a startling and almost stannino^ 
efiect upon his friend, through the following brief and abrupt 
eonmi unication — 



EEV. FKANCIS A. BAKER. • 105 

" Baltimore, April 5, 1853. 
* My De Aie D^v\"nrGHT : — The decision is made : I have resigned 
Diy parisli, and am about to place myself under instruction 
preparatory to my being received into the Catholic Church. 
I can write no more at present. May God help you. 

" Your aflfectionate friend, 

"Feancis a. Baker." 

This letter was followed by another, written three days 
after, in reply to one from Mr. Lyman. 

" My Deak Dwight : — It was cruel in me to write so briefly, 
but if you knew what a press of duty came upon me just at 
once, you would pity me, and indeed now I am in such a 
confusion, that it takes some courage to write a line. But, 
my dear friend, you have been so great a help to me, that it 
would be worse than heathen in me not to give you one word 
of explanation. I decided to submit to the Catholic Church 
last Sunday night, and gave in my resignation to the vestry 
on last Tuesday morning. I went to the archbishop, and 
to-morrow I make my profession in St. Alphonsus' Church, 
before only two witnesses, the least the rubric requires. This 
was in compliance with the advice of the Bishop, who did 
not think it well to give unnecessary publicity to the act. 
Plain and sujBacient arguments had long enough been addressed 
to my mind, but my conversion at last I owe only to the grace 
of God. It was the gift of God through Prayers, and now 
I can say ' ITimc Dimittis ' — for ' I believe, O God ! all the 
Holy Truths which Thy Catholic Church proposes to our 
belief, because Thou, my God, hast revealed them all ; and 
Thy Church has declared them. In this faith I desire to live, 
and in the same, by Thy holy grace, I am most firmly re- 
solved to die. Amen.' ^ ^ ^ 

-' 1 shall prepare for the sacraments next week, but beyond 
that, I have formed no plans, 

5* 



106 MEMOIR OF 

" My Jear Dv^^xht, I feel that I have too Lng resisted God's 
grace, and it wiLl be one of the sins which I must now repent 
of. God by His merciful kindness did not suffer me to be 
abandoned, a^, indeed, my resistance of His grace deserved, 
but kindly pleaded with me, and I am now at the threshold of 
the kingdom of God. Come with us, dear Dwight, come ; 
God's time is the best time. May om* Lord bless you and 
direct you. Tours affectionately, 

'^Francis A. Baker.'- 

This closes the correspondence of Mr. Baker with the dear 
and valued Mend of his youth and manhood, previous to his 
reception into the Catholic Church ; and I have postponed tlie 
continuation of my narrative in order to complete my extracts 
from it, and leave the writer to tell his own touching story 
to the end. 

Mr. Baker's conversion was the logical sequence of his 
former life, both intellectual and spiritual ; it was the result 
of the accumulating light of the eleven preceding'^ years, 
concentrated and brought to a focus upon the practical ques- 
tion of duty and obligation. The particular events which 
immediately preceded it, were like the stroke of the hammer 
on the mould of a bell, already completely cast and finished 
beneath it, and waiting only the shattering of its earthen shell 
to ring out with a clear and musical sound. " The just man 
is the accuser of himself ^'^ and Mr. Baker, whose deep humility 
made him unconscious of his own goodness, in the first vivid 
consciousness that the light which had led him to the Catholic 
Church was the light of grace, could no longer understand 
his past state of doubt, and reproached himself for it, as a 
sinful resistance to God. It is not necessary, however, to 
suppose that there was any thing grievously culpable in that 
state of doubt and hesitation. 

He was right in attributing his final decision to the effica- 
cious grace of the Holy Spirit. But this grace was ori'y the 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 107 

last of a long series of graces which had prepai'ed him to 
receive it. It did not change, bnt only perfected his habitual 
disposition of mind. It produced a crisis and a transformation 
in his soul, but it was one to which a long and gradual process 
had been continually tending. It was not a miracle, or a 
sudden revelation. Careful thought and reading, and the 
assiduous cultivation of his spiritual faculties, had brought him 
to the apprehension of all the data of a rational judgment 
that the Catholic Church is true. The apparently sudden 
moment of deliberation and decision was but the successful ef- 
fort of the mind and will to come into the certain consciousness 
of the truth already fairly proposed, and to determine to follow 
it. It was a supernatural grace which made this effort success- 
ful, and elevated the just conclusions of reason to the certi- 
tude of faith. But it was not a grace which superseded reason 
or dispensed with the reasonable grounds and evidences of an 
intellectual judgment and the motives of a just determination. 

Mr. Baker must have been drawing near to a decision dur- 
ing the whole of Lent ; for his mind was evidently more deeply 
and earnestly bent on coming to it, when I saw him in 
Easter Week, than ever. He called on me on the Friday 
evening of Easter Week, and his manner was much changed. 
His anxiety of mind broke through the reserve he had hereto- 
fore maintained, and instead of the guarded and self-con- 
trolled manner he had preserved in former interviews, he was 
abrupt and outspoken. At the very outset, he expressed his 
feeling that the question of difference between us was one of 
vital importance, in regard to which one of us must be deeply 
and dangerously in the wrong, and desired to discuss the 
matter with me fully. I suppose his intention was to see 
me more frequently than he had done, to open his mind more 
fully, and to get from me all the help I could give him in 
making np his mind. We had a pretty long conversation on 
theological points, without going into the discussion of 
fundamental Catholic principles. The truth is, Mr, Baker 



108 MEMOIR OF 

had already mastered these principles, and was really set- 
tled in regard to every essential doctrine. He ha 1 no need 
of farther study, but merely of an effort to shake off' that kind 
of doubt which is a mental weakness, and perpetually revolves 
difficulties and objections which ought not to affect the judg- 
ment. The one particular point which we discussed most was 
in reference to some passages in the writings of St. Augustine 
concerning the doctrine of Purgatory— a doctrine which he had 
clearly stated his belief in, two years before. I answered his 
difficulty as well as I could at the time, promising to examine 
the matter more fully the next day, and to give him a written 
answer, which I accordingly did, but too late to be of any 
service to him, as the sequel will show. I left him with a 
strong impression that the crisis of his mind was at hand, and 
for that reason engaged all the members of the community to 
pray for him particularly. After leaving me, he called on a 
young lady who was very ill, and had sent for him to visit her. 
This young lady, who died happily in the bosom of the Catho- 
lic Church a few weeks after, had already sent for one of the 
reverend gentlemen of the Cathedral, and expressed to him 
her desire to become a Catholic, but had consented, at the 
request of her family, to have an interview with Mr. Baker 
before receiving the sacraments. When he came to her bed- 
side, she informed him of her state of mind, and asked him if 
he had any satisfactory reason to allege why she should not 
fulfil her wish to be received into the Catholic Church before 
she died. He told her that he regretted very much that she 
had chosen to consult with him on that point, as there were 
reasons why he must decline giving her advice on the subject. 
She conjured him to tell her distinctly what he thought, and 
he again replied that he was not able to say any thing to her 
on the subject. She looked at him earnestly, and said, " I 
see how it is, Mr. Baker ; you are in doubt yourself" With- 
out saying another word, he left the room and the house, 
transpierced with a pain which he could neither endure nor 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 109 

remove. Ee turned his steps toward the Cathedral, and 
walked around it several times, like one not knowing where to 
go, and then returned to his home and his study to remain in 
Bolitude and prayer, through several anxious days and sleep- 
less nights. He was now face to face with the certainty that 
he dare not promise to any one else security of salvation in 
the Episcopal Church. Yet, he was a minister of that Church, 
and was trusting his own salvation to it. To remain in such 
a position longer had become impossible to a conscientious 
man like him. Nevertheless, he went through the duties of 
Sunday, and again read prayers in his church on the Mon- 
day and Tuesday mornings. He has been censured for this, 
by some, as if he had acted a hypocritical part, but most un- 
justly. Certainly, if he had asked my advice beforehand, I 
should have told him that he had no right to do it. But the 
reader of this narrative will see that his own conscience had 
been frequently overruled on the question of exercising the 
ministry in a state of doubt, and on Sunday he was still in 
this state, undecided what to do. He did not actually give 
in his resignation until after prayers on Tuesday morning, 
and any candid person will surely admit that he was excusable, 
in the agitation of the moment, for thinking that it was better 
to fulfil the engagements he was under to his people until the 
last moment, when these consisted merely in reciting a form 
of prayer which is very good in itself, and contains nothing 
contrary to Catholic doctrine. 

On Tuesday, the 5th of April, Mr. Baker gave a letter of 
resignation to the vestry of St, Luke's Church, called on Dr. 
Wyatt, who was the administrator of the diocese during the 
bishop's absence in Europe, and then went to see the arch 
bishop. When he was admitted to the presence of this vener- 
able and saintly prelate, he threw himself on his knees before 
him, and in accents and words of the most profound humility 
made his submission to the Catholic Church, and implored him 
to i*eceive him into her bosom. The archbishopj w^bo knew 



110 MEMOIR OF 

him well by sight and by reputation, arose in haste from his 
chair to raise him from his knees, in a few warm and aifee- 
tionate words welcomed him to his embrace, and begged him 
to be seated by his side and to calm himself. It was with 
difficulty that he could induce him to do so, for the barrier in 
his soul that had held it icebound for so long had given way : 
a torrent of repressed emotions was swelling in his bosom, and 
after a moment he burst into a flood of tears, the gentle and 
good archbishop weeping with him from sympathy. After a 
long and consoling conversation with the archbishop, he came 
over to St. Alphonsus' Church, which is near the Cathedral, to 
see me. 

I was making a retreat that day, and was walking in the 
garden, when a message was sent me by the rector to go to 
the parlor to see Mr. Baker. As soon as he saw me, he said, 
abruptly, " I have come to be one of you." I invited him 
inside the inclosure, and he, fancying I misunderstood his 
words to imply that he was ready to join our religious con- 
gregation, answered quickly, " I do not mean that I wish to 
become a Eedemptorist, but a Catholic." " I understand that," 
I replied ; " let us go to the oratory and recite a Te Deum of 
thanksgiving." We did so, and then walked in the garden to- 
gether for a short time. The first time I ever saw an expression 
of real joy fulness in his countenance was then. He was always 
placid, but never, so far as I could see, joyous, before he became 
a Catholic. To my great surprise, ho chose me as his confessor. 
I left the time of his reception to himself, and he chose Satur 
day, the 9th of April, which was the anniversary of the death 
of his brother Alfred. On Satm'day morning, I said Mass in 
the little chapel of the Orphan Asylum of the Sisters of 
Charity. Father Hecker, who was present, on accomit of the 
approaching mission, accompanied me to the chapel. After 
Mass, Mr. Baker made his profession, according to the old 
form, containing the full creed of J-ius IV., and I received 
him into the bosom of the Church. No others were present 



REV. FBANCIS A. BAKER. Ill 

besides the good Sisters and their little children. He had 
been baptized by Dr. Wyatt, and the archbishop decided 
that there was no reason whatever for his being conditionally 
rebaptized. I performed the supplementary rites of baptism, 
such as the anointing with holy oil and chrism, the giving of 
the white garment and lighted candle, etc., at his own re- 
quest, in the sacristy of the Cathedral, after his sacramental 
confession was completed. This sacred act was accom- 
plished in the archbishop's library. During the week after 
his reception, and on the Third Sunday after Easter, April 17, 
he was confirmed in the Cathedral by Archbishop Kenrick, 
and received his first communion from his hand. 

The conversion of Mr. Baker made a great sensation in 
Baltimore, and wherever he was known. It was announced 
in the secular papers, and for some weeks a lively controversy 
arising out of it was kept up. It was the general topic of 
conversation in all circles. Catholic and Protestant. The 
sorrow of his own parishioners, of those who had loved and 
honored him so much while he was connected with St. Paul's 
parish, and especially of his more near and intimate friends, 
was very great. His own near relatives, and a certain number 
of his intimate friends, never were in the least alienated from 
him, but remained as closely bound to him in afiection as ever, 
while they and he lived. The great majority of those who had 
been his admirers, and who had listened with delight to his elo- 
quent preaching, always retained a great respect and esteem for 
him ; and during his whole subsequent life, he almost invari- 
ably won a regard from those of the Protestant community 
who were acquainted with him, second only to that of the 
Catholic people to whom he ministered. There were some 
exceptions to this rule, however. A few persons wrote to 
iiim in the most severe and reproachful terms. The usual 
pitiable charge, that his religious change was caused by 
mental derangement, was made by those whose wretched 
policy ha^wi always been to counteract as much as possible the 
influenco of conversions to the Catholic Church by personal 



112 MEMOIR OP 

calumnies against the converts. He was sometimes Cypenly 
insulted, and much more frequently treated with coldness 
and neglect. Notwithstanding the respect with which so 
many still regarded him in their hearts, he was compelled to 
feel that he had become, in great measure, an alien and a 
stranger in the community where he had been born and bred. 
In a short time, his duty called him away from his native 
city, and, somewhat later, from his own State, into a distant 
part of the country. All the old associations of his early life 
were broken up ; he had no longer an earthly home ; and 
until his death he had, for the most part, no other ties and 
associations except those which were created by his religious 
profession and his sacerdotal office. 

Some six or seven persons were received into the Church 
soon after his conversion, three or four of whom were his 
parishioners ; and some others may have been at a later period 
partly influenced by his example. But none of his intimate 
and particular friends were among the number, with the ex- 
ception of his old and bosom friend and associate in the 
ministry, Mr. Lyman. His name and influence faded away^, 
and weie forgotten among the things of the past ; while he, 
having bidden farewell to the world and taken up his cross, 
followed on after Christ, toward the crown he was so soon to 
win, and was lost to the view of those among whom he had 
lived before, in the dust of the combat and labor of an ardu- 
ous and obscure missionary career. 

It is not to be supposed that Mr. Baker could hesitate long 
as to his vocation. He had in his youth dedicated himself to 
the ministry of Christ, but had mistaken a false claimant of 
delegated power to confer the character and mission of tlio 
priesthood, for the true one. Nine years had been spent, not 
uselessly ; for the good example and eloquent instructions of a 
wise and virtuous man are always salutary ; and ho had been 
slowly preparing himself by the feeble light and imperfect 
grace which he had for the perfect gifts of the Catholic 



REV. FRANCIS A. PA.KER. 113 

sacraments. He was now thirty-three years of age, in the 
full bloom of his natural powers, with all his holy aspirations 
and purposes ripened and perfected, with a thorough knowl- 
edge of Catholic theology, excepting only its specially tech- 
nical and professional branches, with all the habits suited for 
a sacerdotal Kfe fully established. The only doubt of his 
vocation in his own mind was one of humility, and when this 
was settled by the decision of his confessor and of his bishop, 
his course was clear before him. He might still have chosen 
to remain in his own home and family while preparing for 
ordination. He might have remained in his native city, or 
in the diocese, as a secular priest, secure of the most honor- 
able and agreeable position which the archbishop could be- 
stow upon him, where he could have enjoyed all those 
domestic comforts and elegancies to which he was accustomed, 
together with the society of the beloved members of his family 
who still remained, without in any way interfering with 
his proposed career as a devoted priest. He chose differently, 
however, and from the promptings of his own soul, which 
instinctively chose what was most perfect. My religious 
brethren and myself used no solicitations to induce him to 
join us. His original desire for the religious life gave him a 
bias toward the regular clergy. What he saw of the little 
band of American Eedemptorists, and of the mission which 
was given at the Cathedral, captivated his heart with a desire 
to become one of their number. He thought of one thing 
only — what was the will of God, and the most perfect way 
open to liim to sanctify himself and others in the priesthood. 
His mind was soon made up on this point. He applied to 
the Father Provincial of the Redemptorists, who received him 
without hesitation. He settled his affairs as speedily as pos- 
sible, and began his novitiate at once. As soon as the prop- 
er time arrived, he divested himself of all his property for 
the benefit of the surviving members of his family. His 
library he gave to the congregation, by whom it was after- 



114 MEMOIR OF 

ward kindly restored to him, and is now in tlie possession of 
the Paulists at iNew York. Plis only aim and desire, froiL 
this time forward, was to acquire the perfection of Christian 
and religious virtue. Forgetting all that was behind, he 
^pressed forward to those things which were before, w^ith a 
fixed aim and a steady, unfaltering step. He dropped into 
the position of a novice and a student so easily, and with 
such a perfectness of humility, that it seemed his natur:il 
and obvious place to be among the youths and young men 
who were with him. He was the favorite and companion of 
the youngest among them, and, it is needless to say, the de- 
light and consolation of his superiors. After one year of 
novitiate and his profession, he continued for two years more 
studying dogmatic and moral theology, with the other acces- 
sories usually taught to candidates for orders. During this 
time he lost his amiable and excellent sister, Elizabeth 
Baker, to his great sorrow. Although his ordination was 
postponed much longer than is usually the case with men in 
his position, already so well prepared by their previous intel- 
lectual and moral training for the priesthood, he was not in 
the least impatient at the delay, and his long preparation gave 
him the advantage that he was ready at once to undertake 
all the most difficult and responsible duties of a matured and 
experienced priest. Besides this, he acquired that thorouo;h 
and minute theoretical and practical knowledge of the cere- 
monies of the Church, and of every thing relating to the divine 
service of the altar and ' the sanctuary, for which he was 
afterward distinguished. He came out of his long retire- 
ment a workman thoroughly and completely furnished for 
his task, and imbued through and through with the spirit of 
the Catholic Church. I seldom saw him, and never exchang- 
ed letters with him, during all this period, each of us being 
absorbed in his own particular duties and occupations, at a 
distance from the other. As the time of his ordination a.!- 
proachod, we were both of us, however, again in the same 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 115 

House, that of St. Alphonsus, in Baltimore. It was in the 
summer of 1856 that he finished his studies, and, having some 
time before received the minor orders, began his retreat pre- 
paratory to being admitted to the three holy orders. During 
the retreat, his companion, F. Yogien, an amiable and holy 
young rehgious — with him and the saintly prelate who 
ordained them, now, I trust, in heaven — was full of dread and 
apprehension, often weeping, and even entreating his superior 
to postpone his ordination. With Father Baker it was other- 
wise. Wliile I was in the church, during the evening, em- 
ployed in the exercises of my own retreat, I often heard him 
singing the most joyful of the ecclesiastical chants in the 
garden, and his placid, pale face was lighted up with the 
. radiant joy of a soul approaching to the consummation of its 
holiest and most cherished wishes. He was ordained sub- 
deacon and deacon in St. Mary's Chapel during the week 
bef jre the Sunday fixed for his ordination to the priesthood. 

On Sunday, September 21, 1856, he was ordained priest by 
Archbishop Kenrick, in the Cathedral. The Archbishop cel- 
ebrated Pontifical Mass, the reverend gentlemen and seminar- 
ists from St. Sulpice assisted, and the clergy were present 
in considerable numbers, among them his old friend, Mr. 
Lyman, already a priest. Every one who knows what the 
Cathedral of Baltimore is, and how the grand ceremonies of 
the Church are performed in it, will understand how beauti- 
ful and inspiring was the scene at Father Baker's ordination. 
The great church was crow^ded to its utmost capacity, but it 
was by Catholics only, drawn by the desire to see one who 
had sacrificed so much for their own dear faith. Father 
Baker, as he knelt with his companion at a priedieu, dressed 
in rich and beautiful white vestments, after receiving the 
indehble character of the priesthood, to offer up with the 
Archbishop the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, looked more like 
an angel than a man. The holy and benignant prelate shed 
tears of joyful emotion when he embraced him at tlie close 



116 MEMOIR OF 

of the ceremony, and there was never a more deliglitlul re- 
union than that which took place on that day, when the 
clergy met at the archbishop's table, to participate in the 
modest festivities of the episcopal mansion. A few days after, 
Mr. Lyman, Father Baker, and myself, celebrated a solemn 
Votive Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Alphonsus' Church, for 
the signal grace we had received, in being all brought to 
the communion of the Holy Church and to her priesthood. 

Here began the sacerdotal career, brief in time, but ricli 
in labors and results, of Father Baker. He remained in 
Baltimore a few weeks, to celebrate his first Mass, and ini- 
tiate himself in quiet retirement into his new priestly life 
and functions. The first fruit of his new priesthood was a 
convert to the Catholic Church, a young widow lady of 
highly respectable family, who was bred a Unitarian, 
and who had been waiting three years to be received into 
the Church by Father Baker. He baptized her and her two 
children, a few days after his own ordination. Soon after he 
began the missionary career, in which the greatest part of 
his subsequent life was employed. 

It may not here be amiss to digress from the personal his* 
tory of Father Baker, long enough to give some account of 
the nature of those missions in which he was henceforth to 
take so conspicuous a part, and of their introduction into this 
country. In doing so, I shall describe more particularly the 
method adopted in those missions with which I have been 
myself connected, without noticing any others which may 
diifer in certain details ; and this will suffice to give a correct 
idea of all missions, so far as their general spirit and scope i? 
concerned. 

Missions to the Catholic people have been in use for cen- 
turies in various parts of Europe. They are generally given 
by the members of religious congregations specially devoted 
to the work. The missionaries are invited by the pastor of 
the parifeli, with the sanction of the bishop of the dioceso 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 117 

from whom they receive their jurisdiction. The exercises of 
the mission consist of a regular series of sermons and instruc- 
tions, continued for a number of days, and sometimes for 
two weeks in succession, twice or oftener in the day. The 
course of instructions, which is given at an early hour of the 
morning, embraces familiar and plain but solid and didactic 
expositions of the commandments, sacraments, and practical 
Christian and moral duties. The course of sermons, given 
at night, includes the great truths which relate to the eternal 
destiny of man, which are presented in the most thorough 
and exhaustive manner possible, and enforced with all the 
power with which the preacher is endowed. Several of 
Father Baker's mission sermons are included in the collection 
published in this volume, and wdll serve to exhibit their 
peculiar style and character. Frequently, the older children 
receive separate instruction for about four days in succession, 
closing with a general confession and communion. After 
the mission has continued a few days, the confessionals are 
opened to the people, and communion is given every morning 
to those who are prepared to receive- At the close of the 
mission the altar is decorated with flowers and lights, a bap- 
tismal font is erected, the people renew their .baptismal vows 
after an appropriate sermon has been preached, and are dis- 
missed with a parting benediction. The sacrifice of the Mass 
is offered up several times every morning, according to the 
number of priests present ; and before the evening sermon 
there is a short prefatory exercise, which, in the Paulist 
Missions, consists of the explanation of an article of the 
Creed, followed by the Litany of the Saints. After sermon, 
the Miserere or some other appropriate piece is sung, and 
the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is given. 

All this is very simple, consisting of nothing more than 
the preaching of the Word of God, the administration of the 
sacraments, and the performance of acts of worship and 
prkycr, 06 these are ordinarily practised in the regular rou- 



118 MEMOIR OF 

tine of the Catholic Church. All that is peculiar and 
unusual consists in the adaptation of the preaching and 
instructions to the end in view, and in the daily continuity 
of the exercises. The object aimed at is to present in one 
complete view all the principal truths of religion, and all the 
essential practical rules for living virtuously in conformity 
with those truths, and to do this in the most comprehensive, 
forcible^ and intelligible manner* The class of persons for 
whose benefit missions are primarily intended is that portion 
of the Catholic people least influenced by the ordinary minis- 
trations of the parochial clergy, although all classes, even the 
best instructed and most regular, share in the benefit. All 
necessary available means are used to awaken an interest in 
the mission and to secure attendance. When this is done, 
continuous daily listening to instruction and participation in 
religious exercises prevents the impressions received from 
passing away^ the people become more and more interested 
and absorbed, and are carried through a process of thought 
and reflection upon all the most momentous truths and doc- 
trines, which is for them equivalent to a thorough education 
of the mind and conscience. The general instructions given 
in public are applied to the individual soul by the confessor 
in the tribunal of penance, as the judge of guilty and the 
physician of diseased and wounded consciences. Sin and 
guilt are washed away by sacramental absolution from all 
who are sincerely penitent ; their souls, purified and restored 
to grace, are refreshed and strengthened by the Body and 
Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, and the debt of 
temporal punishment due to the justice of God is removed or 
lightened, in proportion to the intensity of contrition and 
divine love excited in the soul by its own efibrts to secure 
the grace of God, through the indulgences conceded by tiie 
vBupreme power of the Yicar of Christ. 

The earlier sermons are directed to the end of fixiog the 
mind on the supreme importance of religion, and alarming 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 119 

the conscience in regard to sin. Afterward^ special vices 
are denounced, particular dangers and temptations pointed 
out, those duties which are most neglected are brought out 
into bold relief, and every effort made to produce a thorough 
reformation of life. Toward the close, the scope and aim 
of the sermons are to animate and encourage the heart and will 
by appealing to the nobler passions and the higher motives, 
to awaken confidence in God, to portray the eternal rewards 
of virtue and point out the means of perseverance. All that 
can impress the senses and imagination, subdue the heart, 
convince the reason, and stimulate the will, is brought to 
bear, in conjunction with the supernatural efficacy of the 
word and sacraments of Christ, upon a people full of faith 
and religious susceptibility, under the most favorable cir- 
cumstances for producing the greatest possible effect. Where 
faith is impaired, the effect is not so certain, and slower and 
more tedious means have to be adopted, v/ith less hope of 
success, to restore the dying root of all religion, or replant 
it where it is completely dead. It is moreover certain, 
although it may not be evident to those who are destitute of 
Catholic faith, that there is an extraordinary grace of God 
accompanying the exercises of the mission ; and this was so 
plain to the mind of an earnest Episcopalian clergyman in New 
England, on one occasion, that it led him to study seriously 
the subject of the Catholic Church, the result of which was 
that he became a Catholic, at a great personal sacrifice. 

Public retreats had been given from time to time in the 
United States, by the Jesuits and others, before the series of 
Redemptorist Missions was commenced. This series, whicl 
began at St* Joseph's Church, I^^ew York, in April, 1851, was 
however, the first that was systematically and regularly 
carried on by a band of missionaries especially devoted to the 
work. Since that time, the number of missionaries, belonging 
to several distinct congregations, has increased, and the 
missions liave been multiplied. The priQcipal merit of inaugu* 



120 MEMOIR OF 

rating this great and extensive work belongs to F. Bernard 
Haf kenscheid, who was formerly the Provincial of the Ee- 
demptorist Congregation in the United States. F. Bernard, as 
he was always called, on account of his unpronounceable patro- 
nymic, had been for twenty years the most eloquent and sue 
cessful preacher of missions in his native country of Holland 
and the adjacent Low Countries. Born to the possession 
of wealth and all its attendant advantages, bu' still more 
blessed with a most thorough religious training ani the grace 
of early piety from his childhood, he received a finished 
ecclesiastical education, which he completed at Ron e, where 
lie was honored with the doctorate in theology. After 
his ordination, he devoted himself to the religious and mis- 
sionary life in the Congregation of the Most Holy Bed^-emer, 
in which he speedily became the most eminent of all their 
preachers in the Low Countries. He was able to preach the 
word of God with fluency and correctness in tk ee languages, 
besides his native tongue : French, German, and English. 
But it was only in the Dutch language that he was able to 
exhibit the extraordinary powers of eloquence with which 
lie was endowed, and which made his name a household word 
in every Catholic family in Holland. His picture was to be 
seen in every house ; the highest and lowest flocked with 
equal eagerness to hear him, and, on one occasion, the king 
himself came to the convent to testify his respect for his 
apostolic character by a formal visit. His figure and coun- 
tenance were cast in a mould as large as that of his great and 
generous soul, and his whole character and bearing w^ere 
those of a man born to lead and command others by his 
innate superiority, but to command far more by the magnetitr 
influence of a kind and noble heart than by authority. 
Father Bernard brought witb him to the United States, in 
March, 1851, two American Eedemptorists, who had been 
stationed for some years in England, and had scarcely 
landed in 'New York when he organized a band ol* mia- 



REV. FKANCIS A. BAKER. 121 

sionaries, to commence the Euglisli missions. During nearlj 
two years, he took personal charge of many of those missions 
working in the confessional from twelve to sixteen hours 
every day, occasionally preaching when the ordinary preacher 
broke down, and instructing the young, inexperienced fathers 
most carefully in all the methods of giving sermons and 
instructions, and otherwise conducting the exercises of the 
mission in the best and most judicious manner. Father 
Bernard received Father Baker into the congregation, but 
soon afterward was recalled to Europe, where, after a long 
and laborious life spent in the sacred warfare, he is resting in 
the quiet repose and peace of religious seclusion."^ 

The superior of the English Missions, in the absence of F. 
Bernard, and after he ceased to direct them personally, was 
another Father with an unpronounceable name, F. Alexan- 
der Cvitcovicz, a Magyar, who was always called Father 
Alexander. It would have been impossible to find a supe- 
rior more completely fitted for the position. Although he 
was even then past the meridian of life, and had been in 
former times the Superior-General of his Congregation m the 
United States, he cheerfully took on himself the hardest la- 
bors of the missions. It was not unusual for him to sit in 
his confessional for ten days in succession, for fifteen or six- 
teen hours each day. He instructed the little children who 
were preparing for the sacraments, and sometimes gave sonie 
of the morning instructions, but never preached any of the 
great sermons. In his government of the fathers who were 
under him, he was gentleness, consideration, and indulgence 
itself. In his own life and example, he presented a pattern of 
the most perfect religious virtue, in its most attractive form — 
without constraint, austerity, or moroseness, and yet without 
relaxation from the most strict ascetic principles. He was 
a thoroughly accomplished and learned man in many 

* Sincd the above was written, the news has been received of the death of 
Patlier Bernard, from the efifects of a fall whfle descending from the pulpit. 
6 



122 MEMOIR OF 

brandies of secular and sacred science and in the fine arts ; 
and in the German language, which was as f amil: ar to him 
as his native language, he was among the best preachers 
of his order. He designed and built the beautiful Church of 
St Alphonsus, in Baltimore, although he was never able to 
complete it according to his own just and elegant taste. For 
such a man to take upon himself the drudgery of laborious 
.nissions, aided, for the most part, by young men in delicate 
health, incapable of enduring the hardships of old, well-sea- 
soned veterans, was indeed a trial of his virtue. He under- 
took it, however, cheerfully, and we went through several 
long and hard missionary campaigns under his direction, 
"Until at last we left him, in the year 1854, in the convent at 
jSTew Orleans, worn out mth labor, to exchange his arduous 
missionary work for the lighter duties of the parish. Father 
Alexander was succeeded in the office of Superior of English 
Missions by Father Walworth, one of the American Redemp- 
torists, who accompanied Father Bernard from England, 
and who continued in that office until, with several others, 
he was released from, his connection with the congregation 
by a brief of the Holy Father, in order to form a new 
society of missionaries. 

There has never been a finer field open to missions than 
the one which is found in the Catholic population of the 
United States, and seldom has there existed a greater need 
of them. The Missions of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder 
of the Eedemptorists, and his companions, were confined to 
villages, hamlets, and outlying districts, remote from episco- 
pal cities and large towns. In his rules he directs his chil- 
dren to labor in places of this sort, because in Italy the most 
neglected and necessitous part of the people is only to be 
found there. In this country it was not so. The great need 
for missions lay in cities and large towns, where dense 
masses of Catholics were gathered, and where churches, 
clergy, and religious organizations of all kinds, were inado^ 
quato to the spiritual wants of the people. A large part of 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 123 

the missionary work which has been accomplished has been, 
therefore, among those dense masses of the people in onr 
largest churches and congregations, penetrating to the low- 
est strata, and bringing to bear a powerful religious influence 
upon the most uninstructed and negligent classes of the peo- 
ple. Some idea of the extent of this work may be gained 
from the fact that the missions given by the corps which F. 
Bernard organized, duiing seven years, from 1851 to 1858, 
were eighty-six in number, with an aggregate of 166,000 
communions. They have been carried on on a similar scale, 
since that time, by the new Congregation of St. Paul, and by 
members of several older religious societies ; so that, in the 
last seven years, the number of persons who have parti- 
cipated in the benefits of missions is, probably, nearly 
double the figures given above. There were other missions 
also given, dm^ing the first period, besides those enumerated, 
especially among Germans. It is, therefore, speaking within 
bounds t^ estimate the number of persons who have received 
the sacraments on missions, since 1851, at 500,000. 

This is, however, much less than might have been done, if 
the number of missionaries and the facilities for attending 
their missions had been greater. Our Catholic population is 
a vast sea, where the successors of the apostolic fishers of men 
may cast their nets perpetually, without ever exhausting its 
abundance. In large towns, the population is so fluctuating 
and so continually increasing, that the work needs to be per- 
petually renewed at short intervals. There are also immense 
difficulties in the way of the poor people. The mass of them 
belong to the laboring class, and are, therefore, obliged to 
come to church very early, before their working hours, and 
again at night, after their work is done. They have no 
leisure, and can with difficulty rescue even the few hours 
necessary for listening to the instructions they so much need. 
Hence, many of them can get only as it were by snatches, 
here and there, a sermon or instruction during the course. 
In factory towns the case is worse. Were it not for the ac 



124 MEMOIR OF 

commodation usually granted by the o\ erseers, in shortening 
the time, and giving leave of absence, it would be impossible 
to give missions to the operatives in many of our factory 
villages. Our modern system of society leaves out of the 
account the wants of the soul and the duties of religion. 
For many, there is even the hard necessity of working all 
night, and all Sunday. It is, therefore, difficult enough for 
our poor people to attend a mission well, when there is plenty 
of room for them in the church, and a good chance of going 
to confession without waiting longer than a few hours. Very 
frequently, however, in our large and overcrowded parishes, 
the church will not hold — even when crowded to suffocation 
— more than from one-fourth to one-half of the parishioners. 
The church is frequently filled two hours before the time of 
service. The porch, the steps, the windows even, are crowded, 
and hundreds go away disappointed. It is easy to see what 
a drawback this is to the success of a mission, which re- 
quires a continuous attendance at all the sermons and in- 
structions, and to the stillness and order in the church which 
are necessary to enable all to hear distinctly, and to reflect on 
what they hear. I have seen at least four thousand persons 
congregated in the streets adjacent to the New York Cathe- 
dral, besides the crowd inside. 

Another difficulty lies in the vast number of penitents, and 
the small number of confessors. On many missions, con- 
fined strictly to one parish, there liave been from four thou- 
sand to eight thousand communions ; and, of course, that 
number of confessions to be heard within eleven days. At 
a recent mission of the Eedemptorists, in N"ew York, there 
were eleven thousand communions ; and at one given a year 
or two ago, by the Jesuits, twenty thousand. Ordinarily, the 
number of confessors has been inadequate to the work. 
The people have thronged the chapel where confessions were 
heard, from four o'clock in the morning until night, often 
waiting an entire day, or even several days, before they 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 125 

coiild get near a priest. At five m tlie morning, each of us 
would see two long rows — one of men and one of women — 
seated on benches, flanking his confessional. At one o'clock 
he would leave the same unbroken lines, to find them again 
at three, and to leave them in the evening still undiminished. 
At the end of the mission there would be still the same 
crowd waiting about the confessionals, and left unheard, be- 
cause the missionaries were unable to continue their work 
any longer. More than one-half these people would be per- 
sons who had not been at confession for five, ten, or twenty 
years, and of these a great number had seldom been at church, 
and still more rarely heard a sermon. Hundreds upon hun- 
dreds of adults, of all ages, have received the sacraments for 
the first time upon these missions, many of whom had to be 
taught the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, with 
the other elementary articles of the Creed. I have several 
times, at the close of a mission, seen a row of grown-up boys 
seated before my confessional, of that class who roam the 
streets, loiter about the docks, and sleep out at night, unable 
to read, and scarcely able to tell who made them, much less 
to answer the question. Who is Jesus Christ? They had 
come to be instructed and prepared for the sacraments, swept 
in by the tide which was moving the waters all around them. 
Of course, they needed weeks of instruction and of moral 
preparation, to rescue them from the abyss of ignorance and 
vice in which they were submerged, and make them capable 
of living like rational beings and Christians. With some of 
them, a beginning may be made, and the germ of good 
planted in their souls. But many have to be left as they 
come, because there is no provision which can be made for 
their instruction. In a word, the nets are so full of a mul- 
titude of fishes that they break, and there are not workmen 
enough to drag them ashore. The work is too overwhelming 
for the number and strength of those who are engaged in it. 
In this respect, some missions which have been given in tlie 



126 MEMOIR OF 

British provinces, have been the most complete and satisfac- 
tory of any. In St. Patrick's. Chnrch, Quebec, the vast size 
of the building enabled all who desired to do so to find 
room. Nineteen confessors were on duty, and others were 
appointed to instruct converts or ignorant adult Catholics. 
All who wished to go to confession w^ere easily heard, with- 
out long waiting, or the accumulation of a great crowd of 
wearied and eager penitents pressing around the confessionals. 
It was the same in St. John's, where the Archbishop of Hali- 
fax and a large body of clergymen were hearing confessions 
constantly, although, even with this powerful aid, the mis- 
sionaries broke down under the labor of preaching every day 
to six thousand or eight thousand persons in the great Cathe- 
dral Church, which had just been opened for service. In 
these places, however, the number of the people, though 
great, had a limit which could be reached, and the requisite 
number of priests were easily at the command of the bishop. 
In the United States, however, the work is out of all propor- 
tion to the number of priests who are either specially de- 
voted to missions or who can be called in to aid these in their 
labors. The missionaries are too few to do the work alone, 
and the parochial clergy are too much engaged in their own 
duties to be able to give much of their time to additional 
works of charity. If it were possible to give missions simul- 
taneously in all the churches of ITew York City, and if they 
could contain all the people, it would be easy to collect one 
hundred thousand Catholics together every night to hear the 
Word of God, and to bring from one hundred and fifty 
thousand to two hundred thousand to communion within fif- 
teen days. In proportion to the population, the same results 
would be produced everywhere in the United States. It 
would require the labor of one hundred missionaries, during 
eight years, to give missions thoroughly to our entire Catho- 
lic population. At their commencement, however, and for 
some years after, there were but six or eight, and there are 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 127 

now, probably, not more than twenty priests continually em- 
ployed in this work. The necessity for it is, nevertheless, 
quite as urgent as it ever has been, and the benefit to be de- 
rived from it inconceivable. There are the vast masses of 
people gathered in our great centers of population, exposed 
to a thousand demoralizing influences, and most inadequately 
supplied with the ordinary means of grace. All that has 
been done for them hitherto, is but just sufficient to develop 
the immense need there is for doing more, and the great bless- 
ing that attends every effort to do it. Of course, the main 
reliance of the Church is, and always must be, upon the 
bishops and parochial clergy, and I have not had the slight- 
est intention, in any thing I have said, to exaggerate the im- 
portance of the special work of missionaries. The episcopate 
and priesthood were established by Jesus Christ Himself, and 
are absolutely essential to the very existence of the Church. 
fCeligious congregations are of ecclesiastical institution, and 
are only auxiliary to the pastoral office. The multiplication 
of churches and of priests engaged in parochial duties is the 
most pressing need, and in no other way can the spiritual 
wants of the people be adequately provided for. It will be 
long, however, before the bishops will be able, even by the 
most strenuous exertions, to make the number of churches 
and clergymen keep pace with the increase of the population. 
Meanwhile, this lack of the ordinary means of grace cannot 
be supplied except by missions ; and even where these means 
are amply provided, the subsidiary and extraordinary labors 
of societies of priests devoted to special apostolic works are 
necessary, in order to give their full efficacy to the ministra- 
!:ions of the ordinary pastors. 

Besides our great towns, and their dense mass of Catholic 
population, there is another extensive field of missionary 
work, which has of late years been successfully cultivated, 
and which invites still further cultivation with a promise of a 
rich harvest. I refer to the numerous new parishes found in 



128 MEMOIR oy 

the smaller cities and country towns and villages. Here a 
new phase of Catholic life and growth has commenced. The 
population is becoming settled and permanent. Catholics ar6 
making their way upward, acquiring real and personal pro- 
perty, blending with the body of their fellow-citizens, educa- 
ting their children, and to a certain extent themselves belong 
to the second generation of Catholic emigrants from Europe, 
ha^dng been born and married in this country. In many 
instances, one pastor has two or more of these parishes to 
take care of. His time and thoughts are taken up with 
church-building and a multitude of other necessary duties. 
The country around is sprinkled over with Catholics, who 
have no resident priest among them. There is a vast amount 
of work to be done in instructing, confirming in the faith, 
bringing under religious and moral influence, and establishing 
in solid piety and morality, this interesting and hopeful class 
of Catholics. l!^owhere have the missions been so complete 
and satisfactory as in parishes of this kind. The whole body 
of the people living in the place where the church is, can 
attend the sermons and receive the sacraments. Besides these^ 
those living several miles away flock to the church as regu- 
larly as if they lived in the same street ; and even from a 
great distance, numbers, who are usually deprived of the reli- 
gious advantages of the Church, perhaps even have grown up 
without making their first commimidii, seize the opportunity 
with eagerness to come to the mission and remain for a few 
days, until they can be prepared to receive the sacraments of 
life. In Massachusetts alone, where congregations of this 
kind abound, the number of communions given in the Paulist 
Missions of the last five years, without counting those given 
in Boston, amounts to twenty-five thousand five hundred and 
thirty, on seventeen distinct missions, giving an average of 
one thousand three hundred and twenty-five to each congre- 
gation. These figures are a correct index to the numbers 
of the Catholic population in country towns throughout 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 129 

Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and 
other portions of the JSTorthern States. 

The missions hitherto given have been intended imme- 
diately for the benefit of the Catholic people. Their inci- 
dental influence upon the Protestant community ought not, 
however, to be overlooked. Usually, our Catholic churches 
are so crowded by the faithful, that it is at least unpleasant, 
if not almost impossible for others to attend our sermons, 
especially on occasions of great interest. Notwithstanding 
this obstacle, thousands of Protestants have come at different 
times to hear the mission sermons, and there have usually 
been several converts on each large mission, sometimes as 
many as twenty, and on one mission, that of Quebec, fifty. 
Hundreds have been received into the Church, in this way, 
from all classes in society, among whom were two clergymen 
holding respectable positions in the Episcopal Church, which 
they gave up at a great worldly sacrifice. Besides actual 
conversions, a great effect has been produced in removing the 
prejudices and gaining the good-will of the community at 
large. The secular papers have almost unanimously spoken 
favorably of the missions. In many instances, the gentlemen 
and ladies of the vicinity have sent the choicest flowers of 
their gardens and hot-houses, to decorate the altar and baptis- 
mal font. Not only laymen, but clergymen have often 
manifested a wish to show kind and courteous attentions to 
the missionaries. Very seldom has any thing unpleasant 
occurred, or any annoyance been experienced — much less, in- 
deed, than is encountered by missionaries in some other parts 
of the world from nominal Catholics. Employers have fre- 
quently lent their servants and work-people the means of 
conveyance to the church, or exempted them from a portion 
of their duties. It is impossible not to see how rapidly and 
generally the prejudice against the Catholic religion and the 
priesthood is melting away in this country. And this seems 
to warrant the hope that the time may soon come, when the 
6* 



130 MEMOm OF 

faith may be preached to our separated brethi'en by means of 
missions especially intended for them, with rich results. 

The favorable impression already so widely produced upon 
tJiose who have heard Catholic missionaries preach, proves how 
much we have to hope for in this direction. This has caused, 
in one instance, which seems to demand some notice, an 
attempt to obviate this effect, by representing our manner of 
preaching as part of an artful plan of Rome, to deceive the 
minds of the people by presenting only a portion of the 
Catholic doctrine under plausible colors. After several mis- 
sions had been given in Cambridge and Boston, where many 
Protestants of intelligence attended, and more would have 
willingly done so if there had been room for them, the rector 
of a Boston church, who was present several times, preached 
and published a lecture, in which he attempted to explain 
the real spirit and object of the Paulist Congregation, by 
which the missions were given. The extent of the impres- 
sion made is proved by the following passage in a note to the 
lecture : — 

" One does not take pleasure in accumulating proofs that 
the Papal superstition still retains its most deplorable fea- 
tures; but as long as Protestant minds are imposed upon by 
the superficial fallacy that it is parting with these features, 
because its public speakers deliver admirable discourses, it 
seems to be necessary. Undoubtedly, the order of Paulists, is 
at present a very eflSicient arm of the Eomish service in this 
country. Men say, ' Whatever Hildebrand, and the Inno- 
cents, and Torquemada may have done or said, such preach- 
ing as this is good for everybody^ " ^ 

On page 27 of the lecture, he says : " One of the latest de- 
velopments in the policy of her propagandism is the establish- 
ment in this country, with head-quarters in our chief city, of 
a new missionary order. The Paulists are the itinerants and 

* The R. 0. Principle ; a " Price Lecture," &c. Boston. Button & Co. 1863 
A-PP., p. 39, 



ESV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 131 

revivalists of that shrewd mother of ada-ptabiUties^ who, in 
Decomiiig all things to all men and to all women, saw a 
chance in America for reaping, not so mnch in the field 
where her own fathers, like Marquette and Rasles, as where 
Whitfield and Maffit had sown." 

Throughout the lecture, the aim of the author is to show 
that the sound and practical preaching of the eternal truths 
of religion, which he is forced himself to admire, and which 
was so much admired by many others, is nothing but an illu- 
sive pretence, which throws a deceitful halo over a system of 
superstitious formalism. 

I have not introduced this topic for the sake of a theologi- 
cal argument, but merely in view of vindicating the reputa- 
tion of F. Baker, whose sermons at Cambridge made the prin- 
cipal impression which the lecture was intended to obviate, 
and forestalling a prejudice which might cast a shade over the 
discourses which are published in this volume. 

The author of this lecture, who has been my personal friend 
for thirty years, and who wrote to me on the occasion of its 
publication to express his hope that it might not interrupt 
our friendship, and all the Protestants who may peruse these 
pages, especially those who know me, will admit that I am 
both competent to explain what Catholic doctrine is, and inca- 
pable of practising any dissimulation on the subject. Those 
who knew F. Baker, or who may learn to know him from 
residing this volume, will also acknowledge that his high- 
toned mind was incapable of yielding to any system of drivel- 
ing superstition, and his chivalrous spirit of descending to any 
system of artful deception by paltering with words in a 
double sense. I ask them, therefore, not, to accept Catholic 
doctrine as true on our authority, but simply to believe that 
the testimony I give as to the doctrine we have embraced and 
preached, and our views and intentions in giving missions, is 
true ; and that the doctrine, contained in the discourses of this 
volume, is a veritable exposition of the true Catholic faith. 



X32 MEMOIR OF 

The missions were commenced and have been earned on 
for the purpose of benefiting the Catholic people. The sermons 
and instructions have been the same, in doctrine and practi- 
cal aims, with those which were given in Italy and other 
purely Catholic countries for centuries past. The congrega- 
tion of Paulists was not established by any act of the hierar- 
chy here, or of the supreme authority at Rome, It was 
formed by F. Baker and three other American converts, in 
consequence of certain unforeseen circumstances, and without 
any previous deliberate plan, with a simple approbation from 
an archbishop, and a mere recognition of the validity of that 
approbation on the part of Rome. Not a word of instruction 
or direction as to the manner of preaching, or the end to be 
aimed at in our labors, has ever been given by authority, but 
the movement has been the spontaneous act of the few indi- 
viduals who began it. It is our desire, as it must be that of 
every Catholic priest, to bring as many persons as possible to 
the Catholic faith and into the bosom of the Catholic Church. 
"We intend, therefore, to make use of all the means and op- 
portunities in our power to present the faith and the Church 
to our non-Catholic countrymen, and to promote as much as 
possible the conversion of the American people. The Catho- 
lic Church has the mission to convert the whole world, and 
intends to fulfil it ; and any Catholic priest who does not en- 
deavor to do his share of the work, is recreant to the high ob- 
ligations of his office. We intend to do our part, however, in 
promoting this great end, not by artifice or dissimulation, not 
by secret intrigues or plots, by fraud or violence, by under- 
mining or attacking the civil and religious liberty enjoyed by 
all our citizens in common, but by argument and persuasion, 
by exhibiting the Church in her beauty, by prayer and good 
example, and by the grace of God. "We have no reserves in 
regard either to our doctrine or our intentions, no esoteric 
and exoteric teaching. We present the Church and the faith 
as they always have been, in all times and places, one, uni* 



REV. FllANClS A. BAKER. 133 

versal, and immntable, in all their essential parts. Wliat tLe 
Church and her doctrine are is ascertainable by all who mil 
take pains to inform themselves, and it wonld be impossible 
for us to conceal it if we were so disposed. All that we have to 
fear on this head is ignorance of the real truth concerning our 
principles, and the misrepresentation of them by those w^hose 
knowledge of them is superficial. The author of this lecture 
is one of this latter class, and has hastily and without due ex- 
amination put forth liis own impressions of our doctrines and 
practices, with which he is so completely unacquainted as not 
even to perceive that there is any thing in them which requires 
any careful study or thought. 

He says, p. 28 : "I have heard several of these mission ser- 
mons preached. Most of them would undoubtedly be a sur- 
prise^ and an agreeable one, to Protestant ears. There was 
a> sermon on ' future punishment,' without one allusion to 
Purgatory." The sermon was on Hell^ not on the whole sub- 
ject of Future Punishment. We follow the laws of logic and 
rhetoric in our sermons, and confine ourselves strictly io the 
topic in hand, excluding all irrelevant matter. Any one who 
is surprised at a sermon like this, shows that he is entirely 
ignorant of the pubhshed sermons of our great preachers. 
One who supposes that the place of punishment for those 
Catholics who have sinned grievously, and have not truly 
repented before death, is Purgatory, is entirely ignorant of 
Catholic theology. " There was a sermon on ' Mortal Sins,' 
with scarely a reference to absolution." For the same reason 
given above, that the preacher stuck to his subject, and the 
instructions on the Sacrament of Penance were given in the 
morning. ^' There was another, on the ' Close of Life,' which, 
from beginning to end, went to prove, in language that must 
have scorched every conscience not seared that listened to it 
— contrary to all the common Protestant impressions of jRo- 
rnis/i instruction — ^that there is no efficacy whatever in any or 
all of the Seven Sacraments to sa/ve a wicked Roman Catholic 



134 MEMOIR OF 

from 2>erditio7iy Indeed ! Then these common impressioaa 
are all incorrect. The proposition which excites so much 
surprise is nothing but the commonest truism, familiar to 
every child that has learned the catechism. To admit, how- 
ever, that the lecturer found himself to have been always 
mistaken, and Protestants generally to have been under the 
same mistake concerning Catholic teaching, would have been 
fatal. He has no such intention. There is couched, under 
the language of praise which he gives to the sermon, a con- 
cealed accusation that the doctrine of the sermons does not 
really mean w^hat it seems, and that the old Protestant preju- 
dice against " Eomish instruction " is, after all, correct. This 
concealed arrow is launched in the next paragraph : '' Sup- 
posing the fundamental falsehood^ as a whole^ to stand itn- 
challenged^ hardly any addresses can be conceived more ad- 
mirably eifective to a practical and useful end in the lives of 
the people." That is to say, there is a fundamental falsehood 
which destroys their admirable eflectiveness to a practical and 
useful end. The lecturer is making out a case against us, 
and preparing an indictment which shall destroy the good 
impression we have made on Protestant hearers. He prepares 
the way by ridiculing the ceremonies of Catholic worship. 

^' But at just that point not only all praise, but all sympa- 
thy stops short. To say nothing of the dreary array of pub- 
lic pantomime and incantation, sprinkling and fumigation, 
pasteboard sanctities and materialistic adoration, which fol- 
lowed, and which give one a sense of momentary mortification 
at being a spectator at such a mixed piece of impiety and 
absurdity," &c. 

The point at which the lecturer is aiming here clearly comes 
in view. All that is spiritual in our sermons, and that seems 
to inculcate a real and solid piety and virtue, is mere talk, or 
like the one genuine watch which the mock auctioneer passes 
around with his pinchbeck counterfeits, to deceive his dupes 
the better. After a show of pure, spiritual doctrine, to furnisb 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 135 

'' a surprise, and an agreeable one, to Protestant ears," the 
poor Catholics are imposed upon with a set of outward shows 
and a routine of superstitious observances, which they are 
taught to believe will act upon them by a kind of magic 
charm, and secure them from receiving any damage to their 
Bouls and their future prospects from their sins. 

The religious services which the reverend lecturer witnessed 
on the occasion referred to, consisted of the psalm Miserere^ 
chanted by the choir, the hymn Tantum Ergo^ and the Bene- 
diction of the Blessed Sacrament. What is designated by the 
terms " pantomime and incantation " I am at a loss to con- 
jecture. The "fumigation" was the burning of incense, 
which was also had at the High Mass recently celebrated in 
Trinity Chapel by F. Agapius. I think, also, that I have read 
in the Old Testament something about censers and incense 
having been prescribed by the Almighty to be used in the 
" pantomimes and incantations " of the Jewish ritual. " Paste- 
board sanctities " puzzled me for a long time. I suppose it 
refers to the pictures blessed at one of the morning instruc- 
tions, which the lecturer has confounded with the evening 
sermon. 

" There were yet, beyond all that, as one pondered, appal- 
ling absences from the teaching, and more fearful elements 
included." These strong epithets prepare us now to await 
the final and telling blow. First, the "appalling absences" 
are specified. " Can that be the true preaching of ' the Word ' 
where the language of that Word so seldom enters in ?" The 
reader is requested to look over a few of the sermons in this 
volume, and count the scriptual texts. " Could that be the 
true preaching of ^ Christ, and Him crucified,' where any 
mention of the simple gospel story was almost systematically 
shut out ?" A mere ad captandum objection. If the lecturer 
had heard the Creed rxplained throughout, he would have 
heard the mystery of redemption explained in its proper 
place. The reader is again referred to the sermons of this 



136 MEMOIR OP 

volume for a more complete answer to tkis aspersion. Now 
come the " more fearful elements." These are the merit of 
good works, the scapular, indulgences, transubstantiation, au- 
ricular confession, purgatory, and devotion to the Blessed 
Yirgin and Saints. The gist of the whole is contained in tlie 
following sentence : — 

" Every system must be judged by its weaknesses and its er 
rors, not merely by its better traits. They say in mechanics that 
the strength of a complicated piece of machinery is equal only 
to the strength of its weakest part. This is as true in a scheme 
of justification as in dynamics. Offer human nature^ at its 
own option^ various ways of securing salvation^ and not more 
certainly will water seek the lowest spot than men will settle 
down to the inferior methods of escaping the pains of perdi- 
tion." 

What is the point of this observation ? Evidently this : 
That we propose one way of salvation, by a truly holy life ; 
and another way, in which, without the trouble of leading a 
holy life, one may save himself by a few outward observances, 
a mere confession of the lips, without contrition or amend- 
ment, reciting indulgenced prayers, wearing the scapular, &c. 
Consequently, only a few, who are of the nobler sort, will 
take the route of virtue and spiritual religion, while the mass 
will go on indulging themselves in all the sins to which 
they are inclined, and compound for them on the easiest terms 
they can make. Now, supposing this to be true, it recoils 
with all its force upon the one who uttered it. The whole 
doctrine of his lecture denies all merit to holiness and virtue, 
and ascribes justification solely to the personal holiness and 
virtue of Christ, which is appropriated by a naked act of 
faith. This is the Lutheran doctrine, and there cannot be a 
lower spot for men to settle down to, or an easier way for dis- 
pensing oneself from everything that is painful and self-deny- 
ing in the religion of the Cross. The author himself accuses 
(on p. 21 ot seq.) nine-tent^is of the New England Protestants 



REV. FRAXCIS A. BAKER. 137 

of having slid down to such a low point that they are as bad 
as Romanists : — 

" The first question pnt by about nine New Englanders out 
often, when they are urged to any particular religious duty, 
is whether it is necessary to their salvation, i. e. whether they 
shall be paid for doing it. It is essentially a Komish question. 
^ ^ Point to their censorious tongues, their narrow judg- 
ments, their contempt of the Lord's poor, their unlovely tem- 
per, their social and partisan prejudices, their mean dealings 
in business, their physical and religious selfishness : they give 
you to understand that some time since they got into the arJc — 
why should they he ftcrther converted .^" Why should they, 
indeed, according to Luther and Calvin ? Once obtain the 
imputation of the merits of Christ, by faith, and you have a 
fiiU absolution for both the past, the present, and the future, 
without confession or penance ; you have an inalienable right 
to the fruits of redemption without sacrifice or sacrament ; you 
have a perfect righteousness and a right to an eternal reward 
without good works or merits ; you have a plenary indulgence 
without even repeating '* a prayer ot six lines," or attending a 
mission ; and you will go to heaven, not on the Saturday, but 
on the instant after your decease, without a scapular. Even 
the few little things that we exact from our poor, simple fol- 
lowers, as a price for heaven, are dispensed with. " iVbz^ raore 
surely will water seek the lowest spot^ than men will settle 
down to the inferior methods of escaping the pains of perdi- 
tion." Let the Catholic priest tell them that they must pro- 
fess the faith and enter the communion of the one true Church, 
at whatever sacrifice of pride, position, property, or friends, 
and they will find some inferior method of saving their souls 
and keeping this world — if they can. Let him tell them that 
they must confess every mortal sin, and they will settle down 
to some inferior method of obtaining pardon — if they can find 
one. Let him tell them that they must do penance, fast, ab- 
stain, give alms, mortify their passions, keep the command 



138 MEMOIR OF 

ments, work out their salvation, and^ if they would he perfect^ 
sell all and follow Christy like him whose doctrine the author 
attempts to criticise, and they will settle down to some infe- 
rior method — if they can persuade themselves that it is at 
their option to do so. 

"What avails it/' the lecturer goes on to say, "that 
the preaching priest tells the congregation that sacraments 
and saints will not save them, and omits to mention the con- 
fessional, if the confessing priest tells them, as he does in this 
'book' which he puts into their hands, quoting from the 
'Eoman Catechism/ that almost all the piety, holiness, and 
fear of God, which, through the Divine mercy, are to be 
found in Christendom, are owing to sacramental confession ?" 
(Pp. 30, 31.) The priest does not omit to mention tlie con- 
fessional, but let this pass. If there is any meaning in this 
query, it is, leaving aside the question about the prayers of 
saints, that it is of no avail to preach the necessity of inward 
renovation and holiness, if " sacraments " are taught to be 
the necessary means of grace. Yet the lecturer quotes, oa 
p. 25, a Homily of the Church of England, which says that 
we obtain "grace and remission, as well of our original sin 
in iaptism [what ! saved by ' sprinkling ?'] as of all actual 
sin committed by us after our baptism, if we truly repent 
and turn unfeignedly to Him again." The same Church of 
England proposes also, at the option of human nature, along 
with the method of repenting by yourself, without extrinsic 
aid, the following "inferior method," by the confessional, 
which is pretty strongly urged on the sick man, as the best 
of the two. " Here shall the sick person be moved to make 
a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience 
troubled with any weighty matter. After which confession, 
the priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily desire 
it) after this sort: Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath left 
power to His Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent 
and believe in Him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine 



REV. FRiJN^ClS A. BAKEB. 139 

ifibnces : And by His authority committed to me, / absolve 
thee from all thy sins : In the j^ame of tlie Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." 

Let ns tnm to the Catechism of the Chm^ch of England, and 
we shall find a little more about " sacraments," and par- 
ticularly the Holy Communion. " Qu. — ^What meanest thou 
by this word Sacrament ? A. — I mean an outward and visi- 
ble sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, or- 
dained by Christ Himself, as a means whereby we receive the 
same^ and a pledge to assure us thereof. Qu. — How many 
partsr are there in a Sacrament ? A. — Two : the outward 
visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace. Qu. — ^What is 
the outward part or sign of the Lord's Supper ? A. — Bread 
and wine, which the Lord hath commanded to be received. 
Qu. — What is the inward part, or thing signified ? A. — The 
body and blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken 
and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper. Qu. — 
What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby ? 
A. — The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the 
body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by the bread and 
wine." There are some " appalling absences from the teach- 
"Tig " of this Catechism and " other more fearful elements in- 
cluded." There is not a word about the gospel history in 
it, or justification by faith only. It is all Creed, Command- 
ments, and Sacraments. Change "bread and wine" into 
" accidents of bread and wine," and you have in all that I 
have quoted a mere repetition of the CathoHc Catechism. 
" What avails it," then, that the Episcopalian minister tells 
his congregation that sacraments will not save them, when 
he puts into their hands this catechism ? &c. 

I cannot follow the lecturer through the whole bead-roll 
of his enumeration of Catholic practices, which he has picked 
ont of the Mission Book and gathered up in a hasty perusal 
of other books of devotion, or explain every thing. They are 
among the minor and subordinate parts of the Catholic 



140 MEMOIR OF 

Bystem, and are placed in their proper relations to tl e more 
essential parts of it in Catliolic practice and instruction. 
The lecturer has put them forward into a false perspective 
which distorts every thing, in order to show that they practi- 
cally supplant the truth, the grace, and the morality of 
Christ ; in order to put in a preventer which shall effectually 
shut off all access of our preaching of the great truths of re- 
ligion to the Protestant mind. He has skillfully chosen just 
the very practices which are most misunderstood by Protest- 
ants, and most objectionable in their view. The chief of 
these, and such as are connected with Catholic dogmas, 
as Masses for the Dead, Devotion to the Blessed Virgin 
and Saints, and Indulgences, will be found fully explained in 
the sermons of this volume and the other volumes published 
by the congregation of which their author was a member, 
as well as in every Catholic manual. I single out, therefore, 
only one, and that the very one which a non-Catholic reader 
of the Mission Book would be most likely to stumble at, viz. 
The Scapular. 

The author says : " I open the ' Book of the Mission,' and 
I find, intermixed with much that is better, such wretched 
directions as that ^ ^ ^ the wearing of ^the Virgin's 
Scapular ' around the neck (shall) guarantee the fulfilment 
of a promise made to one Simon Stock, an English Carmel- 
ite Mar, of six centuries ago^ that ^ whoso should die in- 
vested with it should be saved from, eternal fire.' " If this 
statement is to be taken in the sense of the lecturer, as a real 
exposition of our belief, it is very strange that we should not 
dispense with the confessional, as well as with preaching re- 
pentance toward God, and a holy life, and confine ourselves to 
the easier task of investing all Catholics with the scapular. 
[N'othing would be further necessary then, except to keep the 
strings in good repair, and we might all of us take our case, 
eat, drink, and be merry, while this short life lasts, secure of 
going to heaven at last. Human nature alwajB settles dowtj 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 141 

to the lowest optional method of escaping perdition, according 
to our author. It is very singular, th^t after hearing our ser- 
mons on the mission, and then stumbling upon this account 
of the scapular in a book published under our own direction, 
he should not have thought that there was some explanation 
of which it was susceptible, which would give it a meaning in 
harmony with our doctrine, and should not have asked for 
tl at explanation. I will give it, however, unasked, lest it 
should seem that his objection is unanswerable. 

The scapular is a small article, made to imitate a part of 
the religious habit, and worn as the badge of a pious confra- 
ternity aflSliated to the Carmelite Order. According to the 
proper and ordinary use of it, it is conferred on persons in- 
tending to live a devout life, as an exterior sign of their 
special consecration to the service of God under the protec- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin, and of certain special graces which 
are given through the prayers of the holy religious of Mount 
Carmel, to those who fulfil the conditions faithfully. These 
conditions are, to observe a strict chastity according to one's 
state, whether married or single, and to perform certain acts 
of devotion. It is understood that in order to be capable of 
receiving these graces, a person must take care to live always 
in the love and fear of God, and avoid all other mortal sins as 
well as those which are specifically renounced by the reception 
of the religious habit. This implies a diligent use of the 
means of grace, such as prayer and the sacraments. The ad- 
vantage attributed to membership in the confraternity, and 
gained by fulfilling its conditions, is merely, additional grace 
to assist one to Hve a Christian life, and thus to escape perdi- 
tion and gain heaven. The scapular is only a symbol of 
this, and the only consolation a person who wears it can re- 
ceive from it at the hour of death is, that it is to him a 
badge and emblem of the holy life he has led, and of the 
promise of special grace in his last moments. There is, besides 
this, the " Sabbatine Indulgence," as it is called, by which 



142 MEMOIR OF 

it is generally held, as a matter, not of faith, but of opinion, 
based on a private revelation, that a person may obtain a 
remission of the punishment of temporal pain in the other 
world, on the Saturday after his decease. Presupposing now 
the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, and also the doctrine of 
Indulgences, according to which no one can enter the first 
unless he dies free from mortal sin, or obtain the second fully 
unless he is free from every stain of sin, however small ; there 
is nothing in this pious belief prejudicial to strictness of piety 
or virtue. In order to escape eternal perdition, one must 
truly repent of every grievous sin* In order to be free from 
temporal punishment, one must satisfy the divine justice for 
past sins already remitted, and repent of all sins whatever, 
even the least and most trivial* The soul can never enter 
heaven until its holiness is consummated* Therefore the pious 
belief respecting the Sabbatine Indulgence cannot, without 
contradicting Catholic doctrine, mean more than this : that 
one who faithfully accomplishes all that he promises on re- 
ceiving the scapular, and earnestly endeavors to purify him- 
self from all mortal and venial sin, may hope that the removal 
of the stains which his soul may have at death will be accel- 
erated by a special grace, and that, if without this special 
grace he would still have some short time to suffer, it may be 
remitted to him, or shortened, as God may see fit. 

The language of Catholic books of devotion is often free 
and unguarded, and therefore easily susceptible of misunder- 
standing when taken out of its connection and pressed into 
a hard literalness by those who do not understand the 
Catholic system in its harmony. These books are written 
for Catholics, who are supposed to be instructed, and to have 
the practical sense of their religion which enables them to 
take up their meaning rightly. It is also presupposed that 
pastors and confessors will instruct and direct those under 
their charge in all matters relating to practical religion, and 
guard them against hurtful errors or mistakes in substituting 



BEY. FRANCIS A. BAKEK. 143 

minor and subsidiary practices of devotion for solid piety 
and the fulfilment of the weightier matters of the law. Let 
any one candidly examine into the spirit and scope of the 
sermons contained in this volume^ and into those of the 
Mission Book, and he will see that those weightier matters 
are the ones which are insisted on. These a,re nrged and 
enforced as essential with all possible earnestness ; and how 
can it detract from the force of these exhortations, that 
an occasional recommendation of some particular devotions 
is also thrown in, which is like our Lord's counsel not 
to leave undone the paying tithes of mint, anise, and 
cimamin ? 

Let it be remembered that the point is not now to prove 
the truth of the Catholic doctrine respecting the sacraments 
or any inferior rites, practices, or pious works. It is to refiitt 
the charge that by these things we subvert sound morality, 
solid and spiritual piety, and faith in Christ as the Author of 
grace and justification. This charge is untrue, irrespective 
of the question of the claim of the Catholic Church on faith 
and obedience. The author of the " Price Lecture ^' has 
made it without due study and examination, on the faith of 
the writers of the Church he has recently joined, and into 
whose views he has thrown himself by a voluntary eifort, 
without waiting to mature the results of his own theologi- 
cal principles. He is capable of better things than this 
hasty and superficial lecture. Let him be true to the dying 
declaration of the great Anglican divine which he quotes 
with so much approbation (p. 6), " I die in the faith and 
Church of Christ, as held before the separation of East and 
West," and he will no longer be found in unworthy com- 
panionship with the revilers of the Eoman Church. How 
much more dignified and noble is the position taken by such 
men as the great philosopher Leibniz, in the past, and, in the 
present, by the great statesman and champion of the truth of 
revelation and Protestant orthodoxy, Gmzot ! The latter 



144 MEMOIR OF 

does not hesittite to avow that he considers the cause of 
which he is a champion essentially identical with that of the 
Church of Rome. I agree with him, in the sense that the 
whole of the Christian tradition which is found in the 
various Christian bodies, and which constitutes the positive 
and objective creed which they cling to, is all preserved in 
the Catholic Church. I know the doctrine of Luther and 
Calvin, in which I was brought up, thoroughly, and I can 
testify that the positive portion of it, respecting the mystery 
of Redemption and the inward sanctification of the Holy 
Spirit, I retain unchanged. I know thoroughly, also, the 
Church principles of Reformed Episcopacy, and I retain all 
these unchanged. I have found also all that true and 
sound rationality, or respect for human reason and its certain 
science, together with all that high estimate of the moral 
virtues, which is professed by Unitarians, in Catholic theology. 
I have never lost any thing or been required to abdicate 
any thing which I had previously acquired in the intellectual 
or spiritual life, by embracing Catholic doctrine, but have only 
added to it that which makes it more integral and complete* 
The real question of discussion is about that which is positive 
in the Roman Church, in addition to that which is common 
to her and Protestant communions, and not about those 
more primary articles of the Christian creed which fbmi the 
basis of all rcligion and Christianity. It is the question, 
whether the Catholic Church is really the one, only Church, 
founded by Christ on the Supremacy of St. Peter and his 
Apostolic See of Rome ; and is an infallible teacher in faith and 
inorals. We do not ask other Christians to admit this before 
they have examined the evidence, or been convinced by its 
force. We ask them simply, ad interim^ to do us justice, to 
give us a fair hearing, to observe the rules of honorable war- 
fare in their controversies with us, and to concede our rightful 
claims as Christians and as free citizens. Those bigoted 
leaders of religious factions and their great "Fonrfii 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 146 

Estate " of unemployed clerical followers, whose occupation 
of hanging around the skirts of our armies is gone, and who 
seek to stir up a religious war, by representing Catholics as 
the enemies of civil and religious liberty, and tlie progress of 
tlie Church as dangerous to our political welfare, are beyond 
all reason or remonstrance. Their plans are well character- 
ised in some of the secular papers, as more nefarious than 
those of the men who plotted to burn the hotels of New 
York. They would be better employed, and make a much 
more efficacious war on infidelity, if they would give mis- 
sions, establish churches, and make other efforts for the 
instruction in some principles of religion and morality of the 
half-million of Protestants in the city of New York, and the " 
other millions elsewhere, who never enter a church-door. 
Those Protestants who may read these pages w^ill undoubt- 
edly, for the most part, belong to that large class who 
repudiate indignantly all sympathy with men of this sort, 
and their schemes. And on such readers I rely confidently to 
judge justly and generously the pure and noble character and 
apostolic works of the subject of this Memoir, from his life 
and from his own writings. I rely on them to believe my 
testimony, that they will find in these a specimen of the 
genuine character and doctrine of the Catholic priesthood, 
modelled after the form proposed by the Church herself. 1 
think they will give their approbation and sympathy to all 
that is done by the Catholic clergy to stem the vast an-d 
swelling torrent of impiety and immorality which threatens 
our political and social fabric on every side, and will acknowl- 
edge the service done to the state and society, apart from 
the directly religious benefit to the souls of men, by the only 
Cl/urch and body of clergy that has a powerful sway over 
great masses of the population in our country. 

This long digression will, I fear, have seemed tedious, and 
irrelevant to the proper subject of this biographical narrative. 
1 have thought it necessary, however, as a background to my 



146 MEMOIR OP 

portrait, to paint the missionary work from which th(5 life of 
Father Baker receives its principal value and significance. I 
return now to resume the thread of his personal history, 
which I left at the point where he was about to commence 
his public sacerdotal and missionary career. 

Father Baker came to the assistance of the little band who 
were toiling in their arduous missionary labors, in iS^ovember, 
1856. His first mission-sermon was preached in St. Patrick's 
Church, Washington, D. C, on " The Necessity of Salvation." 
This sermon was also the last one which he ever preached, at 
one of the weekly services of Lent, in the parish church of St. 
Paul's, New York. 

The debut of Father Baker as a missionary is noticed at 
the Eecords of the Missions in the following words, which 
were written by the faithful friend who watched over his last 
moments. 

" The Rev. Father Baker^ a convert from Episcopalianism, 
and most highly respected and beloved as a Protestant minis- 
ter in Baltimore, had been just ordained, and came for the first 
time to assist at this mission. He preached the opening sermon, 
which gave great satisfaction to all who heard it, and a prom- 
ise that he will hereafter be a truly apostolical missionary." 

One pleasing little incident of this very interesting mission 
was, that the President and his lady gathered and arranged a 
beautiful bouquet of flowers, which were sent to decorate the 
altar at the ceremony of the Dedication to the Blessed Vir- 
gin, which took place near the close of the mission. 

After the conclusion of this mission, Father Baker was sent 
by his superior to Annapolis, to assist the rector of the House 
of Novices located there (on one of the ancient manors of the 
Carroll family, which had been given to the congregation by 
the daughter of Charles Carroll, of CarroUton), in the care of 
the little Catholic parish in that place. The other mission- 
aries went South, for a series of missions to be given during 
frhe winter, and finding the work there too great for their 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 147 

Bmall band of four, telegraphed from Savannah to the pro- 
vincial, requesting him to send Father Baker to assist them. 
In compliance with this request. Father Baker was sent on 
immediately to Savannah, and took part in the mission gi^en 
in the cathedral, at that time under the care of the saintly 
and apostolic Dr. Barry, then administrator, and afterward 
bishop of the diocese. There was but little episcopal splen- 
dor to be seen about the Savannah cathedral and residence 
at this time. Until within a few years previously to the 
mission, Georgia had been included in the diocese of Charles- 
ton. Dr. Gartland, the first bishop, had procured a suitable 
residence for himself and his clergy, and had purchased prop- 
erty wdth a view of erecting a handsome cathedral. A short 
time after his consecration, Savannah was visited by a de- 
structive tornado, which destroyed the greater part of the 
fine old trees which formed the principal ornament of the 
place, otherwise injured the city very seriously, and unroofed 
the bishop's house. The yellow fever broke oat about the 
same time, in a very virulent manner; and the bishop, as 
also Bishop Barron, who came there to assist him, fell a vic- 
tim to the epidemic. These disasters, and the debts which 
pressed on the congregation, put a stop for a time to all 
efforts to establish matters on a suitable footing. After Dr. 
Barry's consecration, the old church was refitted and fur- 
nished in a way to make it quite respectable for the cathedral 
of a new diocese, and a spacious mansion was purchased for 
the episcopal residence. But at this time Dr. Barry was 
li^^^ng, like a bishop in partihus infidelium^ in a small and 
poor frame dwelling-house, containing only four or five rooms, 
and the clergy were putting up, in the best way they could, 
with rooms over the sacristy of the church. Just round the 
corner, an aged negro, with a long white beard, who was a 
Methodist preacher, might be seen sitting all the day long in 
the sun on a little stool, holding a cow by a rope around her 
horns, while she nibbled the grass which grew along the 



148 MEMCIR OF 

Btreets ; and the old gentleman chatted Vith the passers-by, 
or prepared his sermons for the next Sunday, highly delighted 
at the friendly salutations which the fathers always gave him 
as they passed by. Every now and then a black nurse passed 
along the street, carrying or wheeling the little white infant 
of her charge; or a troop of negro boys and their young 
masters, playing together with the utmost familiarity. The 
sunny, Southern atmosphere was vocal with the merry, free- 
and-easy sounds of laughing, chatting mirth, or work carried 
on like a play without much care or hurry, so characteristic 
of a city in the far South. Savannah is a very beautiful 
and picturesque place, where, at that time, Southern life and 
manners could be seen at the greatest advantage ; and the 
novelty of the scene gave it a great zest to those of our num- 
ber who had not seen it before. The clergy were, most of 
them, old veteran missionaries, brought to this country by 
the celebrated Bishop England, full of rich and piquant 
anecdotes of their past experience among the wild, sparsely- 
settled regions of Georgia and the neighboring States, re- 
lated with inimitable wit and humor. '^ The mission was 
still further enlivened by a visit to Savannah from Archbishop 
Hughes, accompanied by his amiable secretary, who were 
making a tour of recreation to restore the archbishop's shat- 
tered health ; and from Dr. Lynch, soon after appointed to 
the see of Charleston. 

This mission was, however, no play-spell for the mission- 
aries. Besides the ordinary labor of preaching and hearing 
the confessions of a multitude of people, it was necessary to 
search out the people themselves, and bring them to church 
to hear the sermons. At that time, the Southern tovvns re- 
ceived the debris of foreign emigration, and were filled 



* One of these good clergymen, the Rev. Peter Whelnn, during the late civil 
war, remained a long time among our prisoners at Audersonville, and spent 
four huu irod dollars in gold at one time in purchasing bread for their necessities 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 149 

during the winter months by a loose floating population of 
NoilLern laborers^ who were without employment at home 
Hence, tl»ere was a larger proportion than elsewhere of the 
most degenerate and demoralised class of Catholics, living in 
complete neglect of their religious and moral duties, and 
beyond the reach of the ordinary ministrations of the Church. 
Savannah has several suburbs and purlieus, rejoicing in the 
names of Yammacraw, Robertsville, and Old Fort, crowded 
with squalid hovels, drinking-shops, sailors' boarding-houses, 
and dens of thieves and smugglers, representing in a small 
way the scenes which Dickens delights in describing. A 
mission in the cathedral might be given ten times over, and 
the news of it never reach the denizens of these places. Ac- 
cordingly, the missionaries divided the several districts be- 
tween them, and undertook to beat up the quarters of sin, 
vice, and misery, in the hope of rescuing some of these for- 
lorn and abandoned souls. It would hardly be safe for any 
one but a Catholic priest to undertake such a work, espe- 
cially in the evening, and certainly no one else would have 
any hope of success. The work was done, however, very 
thoroughly, and, in consequence, the church was crowded by 
that class of persons w^ho were in most need of a mission, 
and who had never been reached before. An immediate and 
extensive reformation was the result. The grog-shops were 
deserted, which before were filled from morning until late at 
night, the sound of cursing and quarrelling was hushed, the 
darker deeds of sin ceased, and the great mass of these poor, 
lost souls began to listen to the eternal truths, and to seek for 
tlio way that would bring them back to God. Many, en- 
gaged in dishonest practices, abandoned their unlawful traffic, 
and made restitution of their ill-gotten gains. Great num- 
bers of those who had abandoned the sacraments, and even 
ceased going to church, for ten, twenty, or thirty years, came 
with great fervor and earnestness to confession. Some of the 
poor slaves also, as well Methodists as those who were Catb- 



150 MEMOIR OF 

olies, attended eagerly on the instructions of the iDiBsion, 
One old Methodist negress was asked by her mistress, or gome 
one else who noticed her constant attendance, if she liked the 
mission ; to which she replied : " Oh, Lor ! yes, missus ; I^se 
bound to be there, if I can get only one eye in, every time." 
Another grown-up slave girl, who had never been baptized, 
was most anxious to receive baptism, and induced her mistress 
to ask me to baptize her. I was very reluctant to do it, 
fearing lest she might not be sufficiently instructed and pre- 
pared in her moral dispositions to begin a really Christian 
life, without a longer probation ; and therefore refused to 
baptize her during the mission. After the last sermon she 
went nearly frantic, and made loud exclamations that she 
wished to be taken out of the devil's hands, and the father 
would not do it, but was going away, leaving her in his 
power. Touched by her entreaties, and finding that her mis- 
tress had taught her the rudiments of the catechism, I instructed 
her for some days, and endeavored to impress upon her mind 
especially, that if she Vvdshed for the graces of baptism and 
the friendship of God, she must renounce all sin and live a 
good and holy life. So fearful was she that she might sin, 
and receive baptism unworthily, that for a day before her 
baptism she would not speak a word to any person, not even 
her mistress. She refused to speak even when she was asked 
about her sponsors and her baptismal dress, and her whole 
demeanor at her baptism was like that of one oppressed with 
the most intense sentiment of religious awe, and of the sacred- 
aess of the promises she was making to God. It is not to be 
supposed that every bad Catholic was reformed, or that, of those 
who were really brought to a resolution to mend their lives, 
all of them persevered. The hydra-headed monster of vice 
is not killed by a blow, nor can we hope ever to exterminate* 
sin by any means, even those which have a divine efficacy. 
It is a continual warfare which we have to wage, by both 
spiritual and moral weapons, which the free will can always 



REV. FBAKCIS A. BAKER. 151 

resist. God alone has coercive power over the spirit of man, 
and He will not exert it to compel him to obey llis law. 
Temptations to sin ever beset the human will, especially in 
a corrupt, irreligious, and immoral state of society. The 
Catholic Church is not intended to be a society of saints who 
have already attained perfection, but a training and refor- 
matory school for the human race. It has no means of 
charming or mesmerizing the human will into sanctity, and 
its gracious influences do not supersede the struggle for life 
which exists in the spiritual as in the natural world. It has 
all the means of sanctifying the human race, and of elevating 
men to the summit of possible human virtue, limited only 
by the extent to which the free human will co-operates with 
grace. It must actually produce these results on a great 
scale, in order to prove that it is the Church ; because God 
would not have created it for this purpose, foreseeing its 
essential failure to fulfil its work and attain its predestined 
end. It is easy enough to show that the Church possesses 
this note of sanctity, correctly understood in this way. But 
it is perfectly true also that the free-will of man, by its 
failure and perversion, hinders the Church to a vast extent 
from exhibiting its regenerating and sanctifying power. Great 
numbers of individuals in the Catholic Church live and act 
in contradiction to their faith, neglect or abuse the means of 
grace, and dishonor religion by their conduct. The only 
means which the Church has of contending with this evil, and 
reclaiming these unworthy members from a sinful life, are 
moral means, acting on the mind and conscience. Missions are 
among the most powerful and eflScacious of these means, and 
their eflBcacy is shown, not in eradicating sin, or liberating 
himian nature from its intrinsic liability and propensity to sin, 
but in checking and counteracting its violence, and reclaiming 
a great number of individuals from its influence. If they 
actually do this, if they have a perceptible influence in 
reforming and renovating the demoralised portion of the 



152 MEMOIR OP 

Catholic community, heightening the restraining power of 
faith and conscience among the mass of the people, and pro- 
ducing many permanent fruits in the increase of piety and 
morality, they are successful, and their value is established. 
It is beyond a question that they do this to an extent which 
can only be understood by those who are engaged in thorn, 
or who have studied their working on a grand scale. 

To return to the Savannah mission. I had a good oppor- 
tunity to judge of its permanent fruits when, two years after- 
ward, I returned there, and went through the same quarters 
of the town where we had gone to drum up the people to the 
mission, in making a collection for the new congregation of St. 
Paul. Many of the very poorest dwellings I found neat and 
orderly ; the pious pictures blessed during the mission hang- 
ing upon the walls ; the children clean and tidy ; sometimes 
an old man sitting at the door, reading the mission-book ; 
the wives and mothers evidently cheerful and contented, the 
best sign that tlieir husbands were sober and kind ; the ex- 
pressions of grateful remembrance of the mission warm and 
frequent ; the signs of moral improvement everywhere, and 
the church crowded on Sunday. 

It is not to be supposed that the body of the Catholic con- 
gregation of Savannah were like this lowest class I have de- 
scribed. I have dwelt more minutely on their condition, 
and the good done among them, mainly because the small 
comparative size of the place, and the thorough visitation 
which was made, brought us into a more close contact with 
their miseries, and enabled us to see more clearly what can 
be done to relieve them, than is usually the case I have 
wished to show what the hardest and most repulsive part of 
the work of the missionary is, and to give a true picture of 
the nature and efficacy of the means used to raise up and re- 
form and save the most demoralised class of the Catholic 
population throughout the country, and especially in the 
large towns, where this class is most numerous. I wish, also, 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. l5o 

before resuming the particular narrative of F. Baker's life, to 
show what was the work for which he left the ease and ele- 
gance and attractive charm of his earlier position as an 
Episcopalian clergyman, fulfilling the light duty of reading 
prayers and preaching quiet, well- written, polished discourses 
for the elite of Baltimore society. 

The mass of the people who were brought to the mission 
in Savannah by the personal visits of the fathers had never 
been seen in the church previously. They were the debris 
that the tide of emigration had deposited there, and many 
of them only chance-residents of the town. 

The ordinary church-going congregation contained, as 
usual, its very large proportion of Easter communicants, 
with a smaller but still numerous class of devout and fervent 
Catholics who approached the sacraments frequently. The 
majority of them belonged to the humbler walks of life, 
although there were a considerable number whose position in 
worldly society was more elevated. 

F. Baker arrived in Savannah, when the mission was about 
half over, and took his share in the labor of preaching and 
hearing confessions. At the close of it, after a few days' rest, 
three of the missionaries, of whom he was one, commenced 
a series of missions in one part of the diocese, and the two 
others began another which embraced the smaller parishes. 
The smaller band went to Macon, Columbus, and Atlanta, 
rejoining their companions subsequently at Charleston. As 
F. Baker went in another direction, I shall confine myself to 
the narrative of the missions in which he was engaged, and 
])ass over the others, merely pausing for a moment to notice a 
letter written by a Protestant gentleman in Macon, to the 
United States Catholic Miscellany^ of Charleston, as an 
evidence of the impression often made by missions upon the 
mind of candid and intelligent Protestants. The letter is as 
follows : — 

" In company with many of our most distinguished ziii- 
1* 



154 MEMOIR OF 

zens, I have had the pleasure of hearing most of the seniions 
delivered, and witnessing the accompanying exercises con- 
nected with their mission, and but express the united and 
universal sentiment entertained, when I say that they were 
exceedingly interesting and instructive, and have served to 
dissipate many of the vulgar prejudices that hung like a 
mist upon the public mind, and, like a cold-damp, mildewed 
reason and honest judgment. Sufficient testimony of this 
result may be found in the fact that a number of Protestant 
gentlemen called upon Mr. Walworth yesterday, and urgent- 
ly requested him to deliver one more sermon before his de- 
parture, which he consented to do this evening. I would 
send you a copy of the correspondence, but it would be too 
voluminous for the brevity of this letter ; suffice it to say it 
was complimentary, no less in the act itself than in the man- 
ner in which the request was conveyed. 

" I must take this occasion of expressing my gratification at 
the result adverted to, for though I am not a member, nor 
ever have been, of the Catholic Church, its piety and reli- 
gious principles — the purity, integrity, ability, learning, and 
eloquence of its teachers and preachers — ^the bright links of 
patience, endurance, and fidelity, by which it is held to the 
early ages of Christianity — its unity of action, consistency of 
precept and practice, and conformity of theory and doctrine, 
as well as the great lights of intellect that have shed lustre 
upon it in the past and present — men whose genius has ele- 
vated them above the gloom of dying centuries to overflow 
history with glory — these have commended the Catholic 
Church favorably to my judgment ; and regarding its on- 
ward progress and increasing popularity with no jaundiced 
sectarian eye or jealous faction-spirit, but with the extension 
of civilization and Christianity — I feel the pressure of. no 
petty, vulgar prejudice in wishing it, with all other Christian 
organizations, ' God speed ;' and if this sentiment be in hos- 
tility with Protestanism, as for myself and it I say, ' perish 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 155 

the connection ' — ' live ' the enlightened liberality and intel- 
ligence of civilized and educated man. 

" Yours, very truly, etc. 
"Macon, December SI, lS56y 

From Savannah, F. Baker, with two companions, went to 
give a mission in Augusta. On the pages of the Mis- 
sion Records several interesting incidents of this mission are 
related. On the first Sunday morning of the mission, three 
gentlemen called on the fathers, all of whom, it appeared, 
were converts. One of them was called Dr. W. B., the se- 
cond, his nephew. Dr. M., and the third was the overseer of 
Dr. B.'s plantation. This Dr. B. had been received into the 
Catholic Church some months previously, and had entered a 
Catholic church for the first time that morning. He was a 
man of fine and genteel appearance, with gray hair and a 
long, black beard, an intelligent and educated physician. 
So great was his excitement, and so wonderful did every 
thing which he saw that day appear through the magnifying 
glass of his imagination, that on his return home that night, 
at eleven o'clock, he awoke his brother and made him get 
up and light a fire, that he might relate the events of 
the day. As a sample of the proportion in which he 
viewed the whole, it may sufiice to say that he described 
one of the fathers as seven and ahalf feet high — at least 
six inches taller than the Georgia giant. The brother 
alluded to, also a physician and planter, made his appear- 
ance a day or two later. He was quite an elderly gentle- 
man, with an intelligent countenance and a magnificent pa- 
triarchal beard. A painter could not find a better head for 
an Apostle, or for one of the ancient Bishops or Fathers of 
the Church than his. He was a man with an intellect like 
Brownson's, and full of information. He became a Catholic 
a few years ago from reading Brovvmson's Review. Since 
that time he has b^n a great champion of the Church, and, 



156 MEMOIR OF 

througli his influence, his own family, his brother and sister, 
his nephew and some others, have also been converted. One 
of the latter was then residing in Dr. B.'s own family, and 
was leading a most remarkably penitential life. This gen- 
tleman (a Mr. S.), of high birth and education, was formerly 
a lawyer, and a married man of large property. He was 
renowned for his courage, and had fought with one of the 
most celebrated duellists of South Carolina, named R. This 
gentleman lost his property and was abandoned by his wife. 
About seven years before he had become a Catholic, Be 
lived for a considerable time with his brother, an unprinci- 
pled and ferocious man, who scarcely allowed him a bare 
pittance. He was dressed in rags, was barefooted, and lived 
on bread which he baked himself. 

After a few years, when Dr. B. had become a Catholic, 
and opened a small chapel on his own plantation, Mr. S. 
appeared there one day at Mass in his miserable plight. Dr. 
B. invited him to stay with him, and gave him a small office 
to live in, and all other things requisite for his comfort. 
Here he had been living ever since, leading the life of a 
saint, and passing a great portion of his time in reading 
Catholic books, especially Brown son's Review, which he 
knew almost by heart. The Doctor said that the only thing 
which could excite his anger, was to hear any one speak 
against Brownson, or contradict any thing he says. As an 
instance of his penance, I will relate how, according to Dr. 
B.'s account, he attempted to pass one Lent. He had been 
reading the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, and he en- 
deavored to imitate their example precisely and to the letter. 
Hjs whole food consisted of a small quantity of bread, and 
during the last three days he wanted to fast entirely, but 
Dr. B. threatened that, if he did, he would send a little negro 
for Father B., to excommunicate him. He was wasted to a 
BkeletoD, and did not recover the effects of his fasting for 
six months afterward. On one occasion, Mr. S. found a 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 157 

poor, sick negro, with no one to attend him^ and not eon- 
tented with waiting on him and taking care of him, as he 
was constantly in the habit of doing for all the sick within 
several miles' distance, he washed his feet, and, for want of a 
towel, wiped them with his pocket-handkerchief. It was ne- 
cessary to watch him, lest he might give away his clothes to 
the negroes and when he needed new clothes, they were put 
secretly in his way, and the old ones removed. 

Others in this neighborhood, who were not yet Catholics, 
were so well disposed that they had their children baptized. 
Edgefield and the country round about was formerly celebrat- 
ed for the lawless and violent character of the population, for 
the frequency of murders, and for the bitter prejudice exist- 
ing against the Catholic Church ; so much so, that a priest 
could not obtain the Court-House to preach in. When the 
elder Dr. B. became a Catholic, Dr. W. B. declared that he 
would burn up his wife and children and his whole house 
before they should become Catholics, and any priest who 
should chance to come near him. Another gentleman, since 
a convert, said that, if one of his children should become a 
Catholic, he would take him by the heels and dash out his 
brains against a stone wall. Dr. M., when he went to study 
medicine with his uncle, the elder Dr. B., made a yow that 
he would never enter the chapel and never desert the faith 
of his fathers ; and his parents told him on leaving home 
that, if he became a Catholic, he should never cross the Sa- 
vannah River again or see their faces. After some months, 
he became silent and melancholy. For a while he concealed 
the cause, but at last, one evening he told his aunt that he 
could hold out no longer, and was a Catholic at heart. 
Shortly after receiving liis medical diploma, he determined 
to renounce the practice of medicine, and has recently been 
ordained to the priesthood. 

At Edgefield a lot of seven acres was purchased in the 
middle of the town, for a church, to be built of brown stone, 



158 MEMOIR OF 

in the Gothic style. Five geutlemen had already subscribed 
sixteen hundred dollars for the church, and Father B. was 
collecting for the same purpose. There was a general in- 
clination throughout the whole town to embrace the Cath- 
olic faith, and already there is a small band of the best 
Catholics in the country there — souls that have been led by 
the great God Himself, by the wonderful ways of His most 
holy grace. Dr. B. has since died, and what has been the 
fate of the little congregation, and of the beautiful church 
which was commenced, during tlie troubles and miseries of 
the civil war, I know not. They have not, however, hin- 
dered tlie Catholics of Augusta from completing and paying 
for a large and costly church, the successor of a very good 
and commodious edifice of brick where the mission was 
given. 

After leaving Augusta, we went to Savannah once more, 
and on the 29th of January went on board the little steamer 
Gen. Clinch, which was afterward turned into a gunboat 
during the civil war, to begin our voyage by the inland route 
to St. Augustine, Florida. This inland route has some pecu- 
liar and picturesque features. The steamer passes down the 
Savannah River, with its banks lined with the green and gold 
orange trees, until, near the mouth, it turns into its proper 
route, leading through a succession of small sounds, connected 
by narrow, serpentine rivers, where you seem to be sailing 
over the meadows, usually in sight of the ocean, and quite 
often aground for some hours at a time. The steamer was 
very small and very crowded, our progress very leisurely and 
interrupted by several long stoppages, so that our voyage wa^ 
protracted for five days. It is seldom that a more motley or 
singular and amusing group of passengers is collected in a 
small cabin. Besides the three Catholic priests, who were 
to the others the greatest curiosities on board, we had an army 
lieutenant, since then the commander of a corps cDantote in 
the great ci\il war, an old wizard who was consuhing his 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 159 

femiliar spirits incessantly for the amusement or information 
of the passengers ; a plantation doctor, a wild young Ar- 
kansas lawyer of the fire-eating type, a professor of mathe- 
matics, a crotchety, good-humored 'New York farmer, with 
very peculiar religious opinions, a young man who professed 
himself a universal sceptic, two or three gentlemen of educa- 
tioji and polished manners, who were not at all singular, but 
appeared quite so in such an odd assemblage; and some others 
in no way remarkable. The cramped accommodations, the 
long voyage, and the usual honhomviie which prevails on 
such occasions were well fitted to draw out all the oddities 
and idiosyncrasies of the company. 'The spiritualist, who was 
an uneducated and uncouth specimen of humanity, with a 
great deal of native shrewdness, and a good-humored, 
loquacious disposition, was the center of attraction. 
The professor and the philosophical farmer engaged with 
him in a long and earnest discussion of spiritualism, which 
ended in his exhibiting his powers as a consulter of the 
spirits. Most of the passengers made trial of his skill in tliis 
respect, although his performance was the most patent of 
silly impostures, only amusing from its absurdity. The pro- 
fessor tried him sorely by asking him a question which 
seemed to have caused himself many an hour of anxious and 
fruitless thought, and which he appeared to despair of solving 
metaphysically : '• Can God annihilate space ?" The old 
gentleman's spirit did not appear to have investigated this 
question to his own complete satisfaction, for he gave him 
no positive answer. He was silent for a moment, with a 
puzzled look, evidently fearing a trap, and at last answered, 
" I don't know, but I guess He coiild if He tried ; He made it, 
and I guess He could annihilate it." Just as the professor 
was going to retire to his berth, the old man took revenge by 
telling him that he had just been informed by the spirits that 
one of his children was sick of scarlet fever. The wizard lett 
the boat at Brunswick, but as the conversation had taken a 



160 MEMOIR OF 

religious and philosopliical turn at first, it continued in that 
direction, the two individuals before mentioned being tlie 
principal interlocutors. We did not join much in it, as it was 
evidently distasteful to several of the company, who wislied 
to read quietly or convei'se on ordinary topics. Before we 
parted, however, one of our number took the opportunity 
which offered itself of having a little pleasant and rational 
discussion with the professor and one or two others, Vv^lio 
were really intelligent and well-informed. On ]^ew Year's 
Day we remained several hours at St. Mary's, Georgia, where 
we found the mayor of the place to be a Catholic gentle- 
man, of Acadian descent, and were hospitably entertained 
at his house. The boat passed the night at Fornandina, and 
the next day we went out of the St. Mary's River, 
across a short and dangerous stretch of ocean between 
a line of breakers and the shore, into the St. John's, and 
up that romantic river, so full of historical associa- 
tions. Friday evening saw us befogged above Jack- 
sonville, and on Saturday morning we learned to our dismay 
that our captain was going past our landing, and on to 
Pilatka, which would keep us onboard his miserable little craft 
until the next week, and prevent the opening of the mission 
on the Sunday. Touching for a few moments at Fleming's 
Island, we found friends at the little dock, who were passing 
the winter on the island, and who informed us that we could 
go from there that afternoon to our destination. We debarked 
accordingly, our friend the professor in company witli us, 
and were refreshed with a good breakfast at the hotel where 
our friends were lodf>:ino:, and a stroll around the little island. 
On the arrival of the steamer, the whole party went on 
board and proceeded to Picolata, where we took stage-coaches 
for St. Augustine, arriving there on Saturday evening. 
About halfway between Picolata and St. Augustine there is 
a po3i-house, wnere, in the last Florida War with the Seminole 
Indians, a party of travelling actors were surprised and mur- 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 161 

dert)d by Indians, who dressed themselves in their fantastic 
costumes, and in that guise made a hostile demonstration in the 
neighborhood of St. Augustine. 

To Americans, this old town seems to have a vast antiquity, 
claiming as it does the respectable age of three centuries. 
The Catholic church here is almost as old as Protestantism, 
and a brief of St. Pius V., in regard to some of the religious 
affairs of this colony, is still extant. There are remnants of 
an old wall in several places, and a large fortress built in 
Spanisli times, and called the castle of St. Marco, where you 
may yet see the marks of the cannon-shot fired at the invasion 
of Oglethorpe from Georgia. This fort might ^erve as a 
scene for the plot of a new " Mysteries of TJdolfo," it is so 
unlike any thing modern, and so thoroughly Spanish and 
mediaeval. It is not, however, of a sort to make one regret 
the past. Its dark, damp casemates look like prisons, espe- 
cially one frightful dungeon, which is a cell within a cell, 
without any embrasure, and admitting no light or air except 
that which comes through the door opening into the outer 
casemate. This was the cell of the greatest criminals. In 
one of these casemates. Wildcat, the celebrated Indian 
chief, was once confined with a companion. Although cruel 
and blood-thirsty. Wildcat was a great warrior, and a man 
gifted with a high order of genius, an orator, a poet, and a 
true cavalier of the forest. On pretence of illness, he and his 
companion reduced their bulk as much as possible by a low 
diet and purgative medicines, and by the aid of a knife, 
which he had secreted and used as a spike by thrusting it 
into the wall of soft concrete, with a rope dexterously made 
from strips of his bed-clothes, he clambered to the high and 
narrow embrasure, squeezed himself through, not without 
scraping the skin from his breast, and let himself down into 
the moat. His companion followed him, but fell to the 
ground, breaking his leg. Nevertheless, Wildcat carried 
him off, seized a stray mule, and escaped to his tribe in the 



162 MEMOIR OF 

forest. After tlie conclusion of the war, he went to Mexico, 
where he became the alcalde of an Indian village, and did 
his new country essential service by leading a body of Indian 
warriors, armed with Mississippi rifles, against a band of fili- 
busters from the United States. Osceola, the half-breed king 
of the Seminoles, who was not only a hero, but a just and 
humane man, was also captured near St. Augustine, by 
treachery and bad faith, and confined in this fortress for a 
time, but afterward removed to Charleston, where he died of 
a broken heart. The great mahogany treasure-chest <^f Don 
Juan Menendez is still remaining in the fortress, and in one 
of the casemates are remnants of a rude stone altar and 
holy-water stoups, marking the site of a chapel. The fortress 
IS kept in good preservation by our Government, and a noble 
sea-wall extends from it to the barracks at the other end of 
the town, which are established in an ancient Franciscan 
monastery. A great part of the old city is in ruins. The 
old Spanish families left the country when it was ceded by 
Spain to the United States, and the resident inhabitants are 
Minorcans, negroes, and a small number of settlers from the 
other portions of the United States. The Minorcans are 
descendants of a body of colonists, brought to Florida under 
false pretences by an English speculator, who enslaved them, 
and kept them for a long time in that state before they became 
aware that there was any way of escaping from it. When 
they did take courage to shake off the yoke, they removed to 
the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, where they retain their 
language, a dialect of the Spanish, with their ancient, sim- 
ple character and habits. The illustrious Spanish names 
which some of them bear amused us greatly. Sanchez was 
the proprietor of a line of slow coaches. Suarez had charge 
of F. Madeore's farm, and Ximenes served Mass. The church 
is a large Spanish structure, built, as are most of the hoaseF, 
of soft concrete formed from sea-shells. On a green in fe?nt of 
it stands the only remaining monument, erected in commemo- 



BEY. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 163 

ration of tlie formation of the Spanish Constitution of 1814. 
The tower has a chime of small bells, which are rung in a 
most joyous, clashing style, according to the Spanish custom, 
for festive occasions, and with a peculiarly plaintive peal for 
deaths and funerals. The cemetery is called Tolomato, which 
was the name of an Indian village formerly occupying its 
site. The ruins of an ancient mission chapel are still to be 
seen there, where F. Roger, a French Jesuit, was murdered 
by an apostate Indian chief and his warriors. After killing 
F. Roger, the band proceeded to another chapel, called 
Nuestra Senora de Leche, where they found a priest just 
robed for Mass. He requested the chief to allow him to say 
Mass, and his desire was granted, the savages prostrating 
themselves with their faces to the ground while he performed 
the holy function, lest the sight of him should soften their 
hearts. After Mass he knelt at the foot of the altar, and 
received a blow from the tomahawk which made him a 
martyr. 

Tolomato contains also the beautiful tomb erected by the 
Cubans over the grave of the Rev. Dr. Varela, a learned, 
holy, and patriotic priest, a native of the Island of Cuba, and 
a member of the Spanish Cortes which established the Con- 
stitution. Banished from his native country, where his mem- 
ory has always been fondly cherished, he passed the greater 
part of a long life as a laborious parish priest in ITew York, 
and died in St. Augustine. There is a beautiful chapel over 
his grave, with an altar of marble and mahogany, and a 
heavy marble slab in the center of the pavement, containing 
the simple but eloquent inscription : " Al Padre Varela los 
Cubanos^'' — The Cubans to Father Varela. 

The mission in St. Au.9:ustine absorbed the whole attention 
of the Catholic population, who formed a large majority of 
the inhabitants. Great numbers of them gathered to welcome 
the fathers on their arrival, and whenever they went out they 
were met and greeted by groups of these simple, warm-heart- 



104 MEMOIR OF 

ed people, and followed by a troop of children, wlio live then^ 
in a j)erpetiial holiday. There was scarcely any business or 
work done there at any time ; the climate and the fertility 
both of the land and water in the means of subsistence fur- 
nishing the necessaries of life to the poorer classes without 
much trouble. Most of these pass their time in fishing, and 
even this occupation was intermitted, so that on Friday 
there was not a fish to be found in the market. The people 
seemed literally to have nothing whatever to do ; the fort and 
barracks were garrisoned by one soldier wdtli his wife and 
children ; the government of the place was a sinecure ; the 
mails came only t^vice a- week ; behind the city lay the inter- 
minable, uninhabited everglade ; before it the Atlantic Ocean, 
with its waters and breezes warmed by the Gulf Stream, and 
unvisited by any sails to disturb its solitude, except at rare 
intervals. Although it was midwinter, the weather was 
commonly as pleasant and the sun as warm as it is in I^^ew 
England in the month of June. I have never witnessed such 
a scene of dreamy, listless, sunshiny indolence, where every 
thing seemed to combine to lull the mind and senses into 
complete forgetfulness of the existence of an active world. 
To the people, however, it was one of the most exciting peri- 
ods of their lives. The presence of several strange priests, 
the continual sermons and religious exercises, gave an un- 
wonted air of life and activity to the precincts of the old 
church, and roused them to an unusual animation. Drunk 
enness, dishonesty, and the graver vices were almost un- 
known among them. 

The negroes were found to be an extremely virtuous, in- 
nocent, and docile class of people. Honest, sober, observant 
of the laws of marriage, faithful and contented in their easy 
emplo}Tiients, which seemed to suit their disposition very well, 
and in many cases not only pious, but very intelligent, and 
exhibiting fine traits of character, they were the best evidence 
we had yet seen of w^hat the Catholic religion can do for this 



EEV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 165 

oppressed and il^-used race. One of them, a pilot on one of 
the steamboats navigating the St. John's Eis'er, impressed me 
as one of the most admirable men of his class in life, for ca- 
pacity and conscientious Christian principle, I have ever met. 
Another, who was a freedman of the celebrated John Ran- 
dolph, and for many years his personal attendant, was not 
only intelligent and well informed, bnt a well-bred gentle- 
man in his manners and appearance. 

The most interesting incident of the mission was the eon- 
version of an ordnance sergeant of the regular army, who was 
in charge of the fortress. This brave soldier had distin- 
guished himself in the Mexican war, by the recapture of a 
cannon which had been taken in one of the battles by the 
Mexicans, and by his general character for gallantry and 
fidelity to his duties. His wife and children were Catholics, 
but he himself had lived until that time without any religion. 
On New- Year's night, as he sat alone in the barracks, after 
his family had retired, he began to think over his past life, 
and resolved to begin at once to live for the great end for 
which God had created him. He knelt down and said a few 
prayers, to ask the grace and blessing of God on his good 
resolutions. His prayers were heard, and during the mission 
he was received into the Catholic Church and admitted to the 
sacraments with all the signs of sincerity and fervor which 
were to be expected from one of such a resolute and manly 
character. I wish to mention one interesting circumstance 
which he related to me, as showing the power of good exam- 
ple in men of high station in the world. He told me that 
the first impression he received of the truth and excellence 
of the Catholic religion, was received from witnessing the 
admirable life of that accomplished Christian gentleman and 
Boldier, Captain Garesche, to whose company he belonged. 
Many readers will recall, as they read these records, the 
admirable and glorious close of this ofiicer^s career on the field 
of battle. During the Western campaign of General Rose- 



166 MEMOIR OF 

erans, Lieutenant-Colonel Garosche was his chief of staft. 
Before the battle of Stone River, he received Holy Commn- 
nioHj and was observed afterward alone under a tree, reading 
the " Imitation of Christ." During the engagement, one of 
the fiercest and most bloody of the civil war, he rode, by thij 
side of his gallant general, through a storm of shot and shell, 
and by his side he fell, besprinkling his beloved commander 
with his blood, as he sank upon the field to die, and yielded 
up his noble life to his country and to God. 

The labors of this mission were so light that it was more 
like holiday than work for us. The presence of a number 
of very agreeable and intelligent Catholic gentlemen and 
ladies, who were visitors in the place, and some of whom 
were old friends, added very much to the liveliness of the 
mission, and to our own enjoyment of its peculiar attendant 
circumstances* One of these was the Abbe Le Blond, a dear 
friend of ours and of all who knew him, a priest of Montreal, 
who was gradually dying of consumption, yet full of vivacity 
and activity, improving the remnant of his days by his labors 
of love and zealj and his works of charity in different parts 
the South where he passed his winters. He died eventually 
in Rome* Another was Lieutenant McDonald, of the British 
Royal E'avy, and also, for some time before leaving England, 
a captain in the Queen's Guards, a Highland gentleman of 
a family that has always been true to the faith, also since 
deceased* 

The quiet city of St* Augustine^ as well as all the other scenes 
and places where we passed that winter on our missionary 
tour, has since then been visited by the desolating breath of 
war. Probably all is changed, and greater changes yet are 
coming with the new issues of peace— changes which, there 
is reason to hope, will advance both the religious and tem- 
poral welfare of the people* Florida may yet become a 
populous State, and the handful of Catholics in it swell into 
a number sufficient to make a flourishing diocese. 



REV. FKAKCIS A. BAKER. 167 

Immediately after the close of the mission. F. Baker pro- 
ceeded by sea to Charleston, where he met the othei* two 
missionaries who had been at work in Georgia, and com- 
menced a mission in the cathedral of that city. His two 
companions were detained for a time in St. Augustine by the 
sudden and severe illness of one of them, and they went on 
a little later, returning by the same leisurely route by which 
they came to Savannah, and thence to Charleston, where the 
mission was already in progress. 

Charleston possessed throe Catholic churches, and its 
Catholic population numbered from five to six thousand. 
All the con^£regations were invited to the mission, and a 
large number of them did attend Irom St, Mary's and St. 
Patrick's, together with the whole body of the cathedial 
parish. The same work performed by the missionaries in 
Savannah had been gone through in Charleston, in scouring 
the lanes and alleys of the city to bring up the stragglers, 
and the great cathedral was accordingly crowded, morning 
and night. First of all, two hundred bright and well- 
instructed children received communion in a body, and after- 
wardj through the course of the mission, three thousand 
adults, among whom were twenty converts to the faith. 

Father Baker never, during the whole course of his mis- 
sionary life, enjoyed any thing so much as this Southern tour, 
and especially his stay at Charleston, the most delightful city 
of the South. After the long seclusion of three years in a 
convent, which had impaired his health and vigor^ the recrea* 
tion and pleasure of such a trip was most beneficial and 
delightful to him. The work in which he was engaged, 
besides the higher satisfaction which it gave to his zeal and 
charity, had also the charm and excitement of novelty, with- 
out the pressure of too arduous and excessive labor. At 
Charleston, he was already prepared by his previous ex- 
perience and practice to take a full share in the principal 
fermons, and to give them that peculiar tone and effect whieb 



168 MEMOIR OF 

is cliaracteristic of mission sermons, and makes them sui 
generis among all others. All the circumstances were cal- 
culated to call the noblest powers of his mind and the warmest 
emotions of his heart into full play. The cathedral was 
large, beautiful, and of a fine ecclesiastical style in all its 
arrangements. The adjoining presbytery, which had been 
built for a convent, and all the surroundings, were both 
appropriate for the residence of a body of cathedral clergy 
and pleasing to the eye of taste. The clergymen them- 
selves, with their distinguished head, afterward the bishop 
of the diocese, were men of accomplished learning and 
genial character, whose kindness and hospitality knew no 
bounds, and whose zeal made them efficient fellow-laborers 
in the work of the mission. The congregation itself had 
many features of unusual interest. Having been long estab- 
lished, and carefully watched over, since the illustrious Bishop 
England organized the diocese, containing a large permanent 
population of various national descent and of all classes of 
societv, not a few of whom were converts from South 
Carohna families, an unusually large number of intelligent 
young men, trained up to a great extent under the care of 
the clergy, and thus giving scope and afibrding a field for a 
man like F. Baker to display his special gifts to the greatest 
advantage and profit — it is not surprising that he should 
have called out, both in his public discharge of duty and 
in private and social intercourse, that same warm admiration 
which had followed him in the former period of his life 
En his sermons, he went far above his former level, and 
began to develop that combination of the best and most 
perfect elements of sacred eloquence, which, in the estima- 
tion of the most impartial and competent judges, placed 
him in the first rank of preachers. The present bishop of 
Charleston, whose pre-eminent learning and high qualities 
of mind are well known, pronounced one of F. Baker's 
discourses a perfect sermon, and the best he had ever heard. 



REV. FKANCIS A. BAEER. 169 

The Cailiolics of Cliarleston never saw Fatlier Baker again ; 
but they never forgot him, and he never forgot them ; for, 
dnrinj)^ the rest of his too short life, he recurred frequently to 
the remembrance of that mission, which was so rich in the 
highest kind of pleasure, as well as spiritual profit and 
blessing. 

At that time, all was peace. Sumter was solitary and 
silent, untenanted by a single soldier. Fort Moultrie and 
Sullivan's Island, and the beautiful battery and the bay were 
calm and peaceful, where, a few years later, all was black and 
angry with the terrible thunder-storm of war. Blackened 
ruins are all that remain of that beautiful cathedral and the 
pleasant home of the clergy. Some of those clergymen have 
died in attending the sick soldiers of the United States, and 
others are scattered in different places. Many of those fine 
young men and bright boys have left their bodies on the 
battle-field, or lost the bloom and vigor of their youth in the 
unwholesome camp or hospital or military prison. The good 
Sisters have been driven from one shelter to another, by the 
terrible necessities of a desperate warfare, whose miseries 
they have courageously striven to alleviate by their heroic 
charity. Charleston has been desolated, and the Church of 
Charleston has shared in the common ruin. ITevertheless, 
there is every reason to hope that this temporary period of 
desolation will be succeeded in due time by one more aus- 
picious for the solid and extensiv® progress of the Catholic 
religion than any which has yet been seen, In that vast 
region where the eloquent voice of Bishop England pro- 
claimed the blessed faith of the true and apostolic Church of 
Christ. 

After the conclusion of the Charleston mission, F. Baker 
returned to Annapolis, and remained there in charge of the 
little parish attached to the convent, until the folio vv^ing Sep- 
tember. - One of his companions, the invalid of St. Augustine, 
went to Cuba to re-establish his health ; and the other three. 



170 MEMOIR OF 

after giving several other missions in New York State, re* 
tui'ned also to summer quarters. 

The missionary labors in which F. Baker haJ been thus far 
engaged, were, comparatively speaking, but a light andpleaB- 
ant prelude to the continuous and arduous missionary career 
of a little more than seven years, which he commenced m the 
autumn of 1857. At the very outset he was obliged to make 
a decision of a very grave and important matter, which re- 
sulted in a still more complete separation from the scenes and 
associates of his past life, and threw him more completely upon 
a pure and conscientious devotion to his priestly duties for the 
sake of God alone, as his only consolation in this world. 

One of our number was at that time in Rome, for the pur- 
pose of obtaining from the chief authority a settlement of 
certain difficulties which had arisen, and w^hich impeded the 
successful and harmonious prosecution of the missions. The 
question was finally settled by a separation of five American 
Eedemptorists, by a brief of the Holy Father, from their for- 
mer congregation, and the formation of the new Congregation 
of St. Paul, under episcopal authority. F. Baker was for the 
first time informed of the reasons for appealing to the decision 
of the Holy Father, at the mission of St. James's Church, 
IsTewark, which commenced on the 26th of September, 1857. 
I have no intention of exposing the history of the difierence 
which arose between us and our former religious superiors, or 
of making a criticism apon their conduct. If the providence 
of God ordered events in such a way that a new congregation 
should be formed for a special purpose, it is nothing new or 
strange that men, having a difiorent vocation, and whose views 
"and aims were cast in a different mould, should with the most 
conscientious intentions, be unable to coincide in judgment 
or act in concert. There is room in the Catholic Church for 
every kind of religious organization, suiting all the varieties 
of mind and character and circumstance. If collisions and 
misunderstandings often come between those who have the 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 171 

same great end in view, this is the result of human infirmity, 
and only shows how imperfect and partial are human wisdom 
and human virtue. All that I am concerned to show is, that 
F. Baker did not swerve from his original purpose in choos- 
ing the religious state. He had never been discontented 
with his state, or with his superiors. He was still in the first 
fervor of his vocation, and had just made a strict and exact 
retreat. He deliberated for some weeks within his own mind, 
without saying or doing any thing to commit himself to any 
particular line of conduct. When he finally made up his 
mind to cast in his lot with his missionary companions, and 
to abide with them the decision of the Holy Father, it was 
solely in view of serving God and his fellow-men in the most 
perfect manner. For the congregation where he was trained 
to the religions and ecclesiastical state, he always retained a 
sincere esteem and affection. He did not ask the Pope for a 
dispensation fi'om his vows in order to be relieved from a 
burdensome oblioration. but onlv on the condition that it 
seemed best to him to terminate the difficulty which had 
arisen in that way. When the dispensation was granted, he 
did not change his life for a more easy one. He resisted a 
pressing solicitation to return to Baltimore as a secular priest, 
and continued until his death to labor in a missionary life, 
and to practise the poverty, the obedience, the assiduity in 
prayer and meditation, and the seclusion from the world, 
which belong to the religious state. Let no one, therefore, who 
is disposed to yield to temptations against his vocation, and 
to abandon the religious state from weariness, tepidity, or 
any unworthy motive, think to find any encouragement in 
the example of F. Baker ; for his austere, self-denying, and 
arduous life will give him only rebuke, and not encourage- 
ment. 

During the entire autumn and winter of this year, F. 
Baker and his companions were occupied in a continuous 
course of large and successful missions, in the parishes of St. 



172 MEMOIR OF 

James, Newark; Cold Spring and Pouglikeepsie, on the Elud- 
Bon ; St. John's, Utiea, N. T. ; Brandywine, Del. ; Trenton, N. 
J. ; Burlington, Brandon, East and West Rutland, Vt. ; Platts- 
burg, Saratoga, and Little Falls, New York. With loyal 
hearts we continued to obey our superiors, and fulfil our obli- 
gations as Eedemptorists, until the supreme authority in the 
Church released us by his decree. This decree was issued on 
the 6th of March, 1858, and received by us on the 6th of April. 
After the Mission of Little Falls, F. Baker was directed by the 
Provincial to return to Annapolis, and although fatigued by 
the missions, and aware that his dispensation was on the way, 
yet, true to the letter to his principle of obedience, he obeyed 
at once. The other three missionaries passed the Holy Week 
and Easter in the convent of New York, in Third street, and, 
after receiving the ofiicial copy of the Papal decree, bade 
farewell to the congregation w^here we had passed so many 
happy years, and witnessed so many edifying examples of 
high virtue and devoted zeal, to enter upon a new and untried 
undertaking. 

Our first asylum was the home of Geo. Y. Hecker, Esq., who 
kindly gave up to our use a portion of his house as a little 
temporary convent, where we remained some weeks, saying 
Mass in his beautiful private chapel, which was completely 
furnished with every thing necessary for that purpose. The 
Bishop of Newark had made an arrangement to receive us 
under his jurisdiction, as soon as our relation to our congrega- 
tion was terminated, and faculties from the diocese of New 
York were obtained from the archbishop. We continued to 
follow our accustomed mode of life, and obey our former Su- 
perior of the Missions. After a short time we gave a mission 
at Watertown, in the diocese of Albany, and were not a little 
encouraged by receiving, late on the Saturday evening before 
the mission was opened, the special faculties which had been 
obtained for each one of us at Pome, for giving the Papal 
Benediction. The grand and spacious church of this beautiful 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 173 

town, whiclL is worthy to be a cathedral from its size and ar- 
chitecture, was crowded by the largest number of Protestants 
we had ever seen on similar occasions, and a number of con* 
verts were received into the Church. From Watertown we 
came to St. Bridget's Church in New York, where we had 
one of our largest, most laborious, and most fruitful missions. 
This was the first one of those heavy city missions so frequent 
during our early career, at which F. Baker had assisted, where 
the crowds of people were so overwhelming, and the labor so 
excessive and exhausting. He went into his work with 
a brave spirit and an untiring zeal, and scarcely allow- 
ed himself even a breathing-spell. The love and admiration 
which the warm-hearted people of this congregation acquir- 
ed for him was never diminished, and there was no one whom 
they ever after loved so much to see revisiting their church. 
Before the close, F. Hecker arrived from Rome, after a year's 
absence, bringing a special benediction from the Holy Father 
upon our future labors, and a warm commendatory letter 
from the Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda. At the end 
of the mission we found om^selves without a home, and v/e 
remained so until the spring of the following year, depend- 
ent for the most part on the hospitality of individual friends 
among the clergy and laity for a temporary shelter. For a 
short time we were obliged to take lodgings in an ordinary 
respectable boarding-house in Thirteenth street, near several 
churches and chapels, where we could say Mass every day, 
mthout incommoding any one. Our kind friend and gener- 
ous patron, Mr. Hecker, afterward gave up to us his whole 
house, while his family were in the country ; leaving his ser- 
vants, and making ample provision for furnishing us with 
every comfort in the most hospitable style. During the sum- 
mer, the " Congregation of Missionary Priests of St. Paul the 
Apostle" was organized, under the approbation and authority 
of the archbishop ; and arrangements were commenced for 
the foundation of a religious house and church, with a paro 



174 MEMOIE OF 

cliial charge annexed. While we were occupying Mr, 
Becker's house, two burglars entered the building one night, 
through a window incautiously left open, came into the room 
occupied by F. Baker and one of his companions, and robbed 
them of their watches, which were fortunately of small value, 
some articles of clothing, likewise not very costly, and a tri- 
fling amount of loose change ; but, seeing two other men of 
no small stature in the adjoining room, prudently decamped, 
without finding a number of costly articles belonging to the 
chapel, although they had examined the drawer where the 
albs and amices were kept. 'None of us were awakened, and 
the first news we had of the midnight raid upon our territory 
was given by F. Baker exclaiming that his coat had been 
stolen. We laughed at him at first, but it was soon discov- 
ered that his intelligence was correct, and that the next house 
had been visited also by the robbers. This adventure gave 
occasion for a great deal of mirth among ourselves, and many 
speculations as to the probable results of an encounter Avith 
the robbers, in case we had awakened, in which fatal ccm^-e- 
quences to the latter were freely predicted. An usual m 
such cases, the police examined the matter, gave very saga- 
cious information as to the mode of entrance and exit, and 
discovered no trace of the burglars themselves. We were 
only too happy that the chalice and vestments had not been 
carried ofl:'. 

The burden which was assumed by our small community 
was a very heavy one. It was necessary for us to continue 
the missions without interruption, and at the same time to 
provide the means of making a permanent foundation, which 
could not be done without securing property, and erecting a 
church and religious house at a cost of about $65,000. 
During this time of struggle for life, F. Baker was one of the 
main stays of the missions, and one of the most arduous and 
efficient of our number in working at the collection of funds 
and the organization of the parish. After a summer spent 



BEY. FRANCIS A BAKER. 1Y5 

in this latter work, a course of missions was commenced in 
September, the first of which was a heavy one, in a congre- 
gation numbering 5,000 souls, at the cathedral of Providence, 
in which we were all engaged. The next was a retreat 
given to men alone, and specifically to the members of the 
Society of St. Yincent de Paul, in the cathedral of New York. 
F. Baker closed it with a magnificent sermon in his happiest 
vein, on " The Standard of Christian Character for men in the 
world." The following notice of the retreat, taken from the 
FreemaVbS Journal^ is more graphic than any that I can give, 
and I therefore quote it entire, in place of describing it in my 
own language : — 

" The retreat given by the band of Missionaries of St. 
Paul the Apostle to members of St. Yincent de Paul's Society, 
and other men of this city, closed on Sunday evening, the 
Rev. Father Baker preaching an admirable sermon on the 
characteristics of Christian perfection for men in the world. 
During the week that this retreat has continued, the number 
of men approaching the sacraments was about two thousand. 
The religious effects of the occasion will be great and per- 
manent. But besides results that the Catholic faith leads 
to expect, St. Patrick's Cathedral has, the past week, pre- 
sented a subject for thought and astonishment to the observ- 
ing and reflecting man, though not a Catholic. What has 
gathered these crowds of busy, practical men ? What keeps 
them kneeling, or standing quietly in solid masses, for an 
hour before the exercises commence ? Most of these men 
rose from their beds at four o'clock, some as early as half-past 
three, and made long walks through the darkness to secure 
their standing-place in the church during the early instruc- 
tions. They hear from the pulpit solid, distinct, earnest in- 
structions in regard to what a man must believe, and in 
regard to what he must do to attain eternal life when this 
world is past. But whence comes this lively appreciation of 
truths beyond the reach of the senses, in the minds of men 



176 MEMOIR OF 

plunged all day long, and every day, in maternal occupa- 
tions ? Here are men of the class that, in communities not 
Catholic, do not suffer religion to interfere with their comfort 
— who like best to discuss the points of their religious profes- 
sion after dinner, and to listen to sermons while seated in 
cushioned pews. What causes them thus to stand in the 
packed throng of the faithful, listening to the homely details 
of daily duties required of them, or kneeling on the hard 
floor, repeating with the multitude, in a loud voice, the 
prayers they learned in childhood ? Then, these sons of 
humblest toil that kneel beside them. All the heat and 
excitement of the " revival " failed to bring any considerable 
number of the corresponding class of non-Catholics to the 
" prayer-meetings." The latter mentioned would say that 
they had to look out for their daily bread, and that the rich 
men at the prayer-meetings did not want them any way. 
Here they are at St. Patrick's, by five o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and either they do without their breakfast, or it was 
dispatched an hour or more before. These various classes of 
men, having attended the exercises given by the Missionaries of 
St. Paul, during the week, stood crowded within St. Patrick's 
on Sunday evening. The parting instruction of the mission- 
aries was to stir them, by all the courage and fervor and en- 
durance that they had manifested during the retreat, to fix 
higher principles and firmer purposes for the guidance of 
their future life — to be faithful to every duty, to their fami- 
lies, to society, and to themselves — to be manly in their reli- 
gious observances, and generous in sacrificing for their faith 
and for God every attachment that brings scandal on their 
religion or danger to their own virtue. At the close of the 
exercises by the missionaries, the Most Rev. Archbishop 
Hughes made some remarks to the vast congregation. He 
said he found no necessity of adding any thing to what the 
missionaries, according to the special objects of their calling, 
had done, to cause the truths most appropriate and necessary 



REV. FKANCIS A. BAKER. 177 

to sink into hearts so well prepared to receive and retain 
them. But the spectacle before him was one he conld not 
let pass without some words expressive of his. gratification. 
"When a few Catholic young men first met in the archbishop^s 
house to form the first Conference of St. Vincent de Paul, he 
had formed high anticipations of the good their association 
would do each other and the Catholic community at large. 
Here, to-night, he saw the realization of his hopes. When 
he reflected on the influence that must be exerted on the 
Catholic body, and on this great city — where, alas, there was 
no other religion capable of influencing and restraining men 
except the Catholic — by so great a company of men in- 
structed in their religion,^ and fervent in its practice — ^he had 
the wish that such meetings for these exercises, might, at 
intervals, be repeated in all the Catholic churches in the city. 
He then thanked the missionaries for their labors — he 
knew they asked not thanks from men — but still it was due 
that he, in the name of those who had been benefited by their 
exercises, should thank them. 

" This retreat for men has been, in some respects, of espe- 
cial interest, and has been highly successful ; and, for the com- 
plete satisfaction that it has afforded, it must be said that 
nothing which discreet forethought and arrangement, or 
affectionate zeal and assiduity could effect, was left undone 
by the Yery Eev. Mr. Starrs, V. G. and Eector of the 
Cathedral." 

The third mission was given at the cathedral of Covington, 
when the following circumstance occurred. A Protestant 
gentleman, who was present one evening, had a phial of 
poison in his pocket, with which he was fully determined to 
destroy his own life ; but the sermon of F. Baker on the 
Particular Judgment made such a powerful impression on hia 
mind that he threw away the poison and disclosed to his 
friends what his desperate purpose had been. From Coving- 
ton, F. Hecker returned to New York, to attend to our affaii^s 



178 MEMOIR OF 

there, and F. Baker with two companions went on a tour of 
missions, wliicli continued from November until Christmas, 
in the State of Michigan. The flourishing parishes located 
in the pretty villages of Kalamazoo, Marshall, Jackson, and 
Ann Arbor, were the ones visited. The last of these mis- 
sions deserves a special notice, which I extract from the 
"Eecords":— 

" The pastor of the church in Ann Arbor has two congre- 
gations under his charge, one at Ann Arbor, and the other at 
I^forthfield. The latter is the larger of the two, and it was 
earnestly desired that we should give them a separate mis- 
sion. We were told that it was vain to expect them to come 
to the service at Ann Arbor, and, as they were already jealous 
of the Ann Arbor people, if we did not give them a mission 
of their own, their dissatisfaction would be increased, and we 
should do more harm than good by our visit. We on our 
part would have been willing to give them a double mission ; 
but as there was no house near the N'orthfield church where 
the missionaries could lodge, it was decided to be impossible, 
and we concluded that one of the fathers should go out on 
Sunday and announce the mission to the E'orthfield people, 
and invite them to attend at Ann Arbor. The result proved 
the wisdom of the decision, for the people came in from the 
country in crowds, thus increasing the life and animation of 
the mission. The weather was mild and pleasant, the nights 
were bright and moonlit, and every morning and evening 
crowds of wagons were drawn up around the church, some 
from ten, some from fifteen, and some even from twenty miles 
off. The church was crowded by five o'clock in the morning, 
and the congregation, not content with assisting at one Mass 
and the Instruction, remained until late in the morning, when 
the Masses were all over. In the evening, the crowd was 
rendered still denser by the large representation of Protest- 
ants who attended. On the last night, the crowd was so 
great, that not only was the church packed in every part to 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 179 

Its utmost oapacity, bnt even the mudows were filled with 
young men who had climbed up from without, and the trees 
around the church offered a perch for those who had to con- 
tent themselves with a bird's-eye view of the scene." 

I have noticed this mission more particularly, because this 
ISTorthfield congregation was a specimen of several Catholic 
farming communities with which we came in contact on our 
missions. The prosperity, happiness, and virtue which I have 
found existing among this class of our people, induce me to 
recommend most earnestly to all those who have at heart the 
welfare of our Catholic Irish population, to promote in every 
way their devoting themselves to agricultural pursuits in the 
country. It would be a great blessing if the large towns could 
be depleted of the surplus population with which they are 
overcrowded, and the tide of immigration diverted from them, 
to be distributed over our vast territory. This agricultural 
life is incomparably more wholesome, more happy, and more 
favorable to virtue and piety than the feverish, comfortless, 
and unnatural existence to which the mass of the laboring 
class are condemned in large cities. It is free from a thousand 
influences vitiating both to the soul and the body, and, above 
all things, better for the proper training of children. Our 
young men aud women of American origin are deserting this 
agricultural life, and leaving vacant the fields of their fathers, 
to plunge into a more exciting and adventurous life, which 
promises to satisfy more speedily their desire for wealth. Let 
our young Irishmen, who come here to find a better field for 
their strength and vigor than they have at home, and those 
who have grown up here, but find themselves unable to get a 
proper field for their industry in the old and crovv^ded settle- 
ments, come in and take their places, leave the cities, shun 
the factory towns, and strike into the open country. Sobriety, 
industry, and prudence, will secure to every young man of 
this sort, in due time, the position of an independent land- 
holder. There is a hidden treasure of wealthy healthy virtue. 



180 MEMOIR OP 

and happiness in the soil, which will richly reward those wiio 
dig for it, and will also enrich both the country and the 
Church. 

I may also mention with pleasure, in connection with the 
Ann Arbor Mission, my agreeable recollections of the polite 
attentions we received from the president and gentlemen of 
the University of Michigan. This is by no means a solitary 
instance of courtesy extended to us in the Protestant com- 
munity. In many parts of the United States, we have 
received the most polite and friendly attentions, and occasion- 
ally hospitable entertainment, both from clergymen and 
laymen of different religious denominations, as well as a 
general manifestation of respect and good-will on the part 
of the community. Sometimes the mission has excited ill- 
will, and obstacles have been thrown in the way of domestics 
and other dependent persons attending it. But in many 
other cases, not only has there been no interference, but 
every facility has been given, by owners of factories, who 
have shortened the time of work and given leave of absence, 
and by masters and mistresses of families, who have excused 
their servants from their ordinary work, and even furnished 
them with conveyances, when they lived at a distance. 

From Michigan, the missionaries returned to 'New York, 
and after I^ew Year's, being rejoined by Father Hecker, gave 
a mission in St. Mary's Church, New Haven, a large and 
very flourishing parish, which is, however, only one of three 
in the classic " City of Elms ;" where, thirty-five years ago, 
there was not a Catholic to be found, except, perhaps, one or 
two serving-men in wealthy families. 

After this mission, I revisited several of the places where 
we had given missions in South Carolina and Georgia, to 
solicit aid for our infant community, which was given in a 
liberal and generous manner, worthy of those warm-hearted 
Catholics, who, I trust, will receive a similar return from 
tbeir Northern brethren, whenever they ask for it, to enable 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 181 

fchem to repair the ruin whicli has been made among them 
by civil vrar. 

During my absence, two missions were given by the other 
three fathers — one at Princeton, where the church was broken 
down by the throng, and whose young pastor has since joined 
our community: another at Belleville, which has been so 
beautifully described by the amiable pastor of that place, that 
I cannot refrain from copying his sketch : — 

" At the above-mentioned place, the Kev. Fathers Hecker, 
Deshon, and Baker opened a mission, Sunday, February 13, 
which continued during a week, and closed on the evening 
of the Sunday following. To say that it was most successful, 
is too cold an expression ; and to call it most impressive, 
beautiful, and triumphant, can give no adequate idea of its 
enchanting power. During the week of its continuance, 
tne hill that is crowned by the graceful Church of St. Peter, 
with its tall steeple and gilded cross, marking the first of a 
series of eminences that rise higher and higher westward 
from the River Passaic, has almost realized Mount Thabor. 
The eager people of the coantry round had been beforehand 
preparing for the arrival of the missionaries, and no sooner 
did the good fathers come than the faithful people rose up 
in haste to meet them. Down they came, the children of old 
Roscommon and Mayo, from the romantic hills of Caldwell 
on the west, along the glades and woody slopes of Bloomfield, 
saluting, as they passed, their newly-built Church of ' Our 
Lady of the Immaculate Conception.' Onward and upward, 
too, were liastening from the north and east, through Acquac- 
kanouck and Belleville, those who long ago left the Boyne 
and the Luir, the Liffey and Shannon, to cultivate the valley 
of the scarcely less beautiful Passaic. A thin, sparkling frost 
Btill lay upon the roads ; and the crisping sounds of their 
hurrying feet, ' beautiful with glad tidings,' and their cheer- 
fully ringing voices, far and near, were heard along the banks 
and over the drawbridge of that beautiful river — beautifid at 



182 MEMOIR OF 

half-past four in the balmy morning air — quivering under the 

hovering, waning moon, the deep-blue sky, and the twinkling 
stars. But the people of the valley have ascended the hiU 
from whence tlie loud bell of St. Peter's steeple has been 
awakening the country for miles around with its clear and 
booming sounds. They meet their brethren from l^loomfield 
and Caldwell, and pause for a moment before the double 
flight of steps leading up to the portico of the church. Every 
window gleams with light. The organ and choir are inton- 
ing and singing the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
' Sancta Yirgo Virginum,' ' Holy Virgin of Virgins, pray for 
us.' ^I thought I was before the bell,' exclaims a young 
woman, just come from several miles off, as she flits hastily 
through the doorway to be in time for Mass. But the priest, 
in his shining vestments, with his little surpliced attendants, 
is already at the altar ; and, it being five o'clock, the first 
Mass of the morning lias pimctually begun. The weather, 
however, at two or three other intervals of the mission, was 
not quite so propitious, nor the roads so pleasant ; for thaws 
and occasional rain had softened the latter to a disagreeable 
extent. But this mattered nothing to the seamless robe 
of the Faith, which is proof against all weathers ; for St. 
Peter's was thronged morning and evening alike while 
the mission lasted. Many were the expedients resorted to by 
poor mothers, for trusty guardians to mind the little ones 
during their absence at church. In several instances, a 
mother would charge herself with the children of two or 
three others ; or some kind-hearted Protestant would take 
this care upon her. But not unfrequently the little ones were 
deposited in the basement of the church ; and it was interest- 
ing to see the German mother place her infant in the Irish- 
woman's arms, while she herself hastened up witli the crowd 
to receive communion at the altar-rail — a crovv^d of old and 
young, dotted here and there with the Hollander, the Ger- 
man, the French, and the English or American Catholic 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 183 

The moming instruction was usually given by Father Hecker, 
whose appearance and manner were well calculated to cheer 
up the people, even to alacrity, under their daily difficulties 
of faithful attendance, late and early, on the mission — whe- 
ther he related the anecdote of the old man, whoj early in 
the morning, after most determined efforts to be faithful to 
the mission, vanquished the temptation of his warm bed, and 
finally succeeded in reaching the church in the teeth of a 
snow-storm, with inverted umbrella; or, when urging the 
duty of virtuous perseverance, he gave his celebrated allegory 
of the pike of the Mississippi, who, terrified one night by an 
unusual display of fireworks on its banks, vowed he would 
swallow no more little fishes, but afterward relapsed into 
his intemperate proclivities, and became worse than ever. 
In the evening. Father Deshon ended his most interesting in- 
struction with the recitation of the Rosary, responded to 
aloud by the whole congregation. This was followed by 
Father Baker's sermon and the Benediction of the Blessed 
Sacrament. Besides the overfiowing attendance of the faith- 
ful, the knowledge of the missionaries themselves being Amer- 
icans and converts from Protestantism, brought hundreds 
of Protestants of all classes nightly, many of whom were 
present at every sermon ; and they were as sensibly moved 
even to tears and audible grief, by the power and holiness of 
the preacher's eloquence, as the Catholics themselves. But 
the last night's scene will long be remembered — the renewal 
of baptismal vows, with uplifted hands, by the entire assem- 
blage, which the strongly-built church somehow or other con- 
trived to accommodate, sitting and standing in the pews, 
passages, gallery, and sacristy, and close around the sanctuary, 
to the number of some thirteen or fourteen hundred. The 
interior of the church was but lately remodelled and decorated, 
and its pale rose-colored w^alls and ceiling were charminsrly 
varied by their white ornamental centers and panelled mould- 
ings. The statues of the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter at 



184 MEMOIR or 

either side of the sanctuary rested on tasteful pedestals, which 
supported four lofty Corinthian cohimns and their pilasters. 
These pure white, fluted, and tapering columns, with their 
rich capitals and entablature, the altar, tabernacle, and 
almost life-size crucifix, the high-raised marble font and its 
pendent baptismal robe of snowy lace — all those, contrasted 
with the dark and lofty missionary cross, and the crucifixion 
winding scarf hung athwart it, became of an almost white 
and dazzling beauty, amid the innumerable lights, silver 
and gilded candelabra, and vases of a countless variety of 
natural flowers. It is a pleasing thought, that much of the 
plate alluded to was lent for the occasion by kind-hearted 
Protestants of the neighborhood, in whose estimation this 
mission has exalted the Catholic Church to a surprising 
degree. At the same, time it may be said, that few or no places 
in the country are more remarkable than Belleville, IS". J., for 
kind cordiality on the part of the Protestant community 
toward the Catholic. But the last scene, like a beautiful 
vision, is now over. The missionaries have given their bless- 
ing to the crowd, among whom is a Protestant young lady, 
who comes also to seek it before the carriage shall have borne 
them away. One convert was baptized on the morning of 
their departure. Another will be in a day or two hence. 
More are in reserve for this sacred rite. Upward of eleven 
hundred and thirty Catholics have received the Holy Eucha- 
rist ; many of them old men, and many youths, who, but for 
the influence of the mission, would not have approached the 
sacraments for years — perhaps never. Young, wavering 
Catholics, already more than half lost to the faith, have been 
reclaimed and fortified. A rich legacy of Catholic truth has 
been left to vanquish falsehood and error, which, in Belleville 
and its neighborhood, must cower for many a day before the 
memory of the Missionaries of St. Paul the Apostle.^' * 

♦ New \ork Uablet, 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 185 

On the 20tli of Marchj 1859, a mission was opened in St. 
Patrick's Churcli, Quebec, by tbe special invitation of the 
Administrator of the diocese. It would be easy to fill pages 
with reminiscences of this mission, given in a city so re- 
plete with interest of every kind, and full of pleasant recol- 
lections. The mission was a very large one ; as we had seven 
thousand two hundred and fifty communions, and fifty eon- 
verts received into the Church. It was peculiarly satisfac- 
tory, also, from the circumstance that the church was large 
enough to contain all the people who desired to get in, 
thougli it was densely crowded, and that the most abundant 
facilities were furnished to all who wished to come to confes- 
sion — there being nineteen confessors, of whom fifteen were 
clergymen of the diocese. 

The soldiers of the garrison attend this church, where they 
have on Sundays a special Mass and sermon from their chap- 
lain. Tlie Thirty-ninth Regiment, of Crimean memory, was 
stationed there at that time, and as many as were able to get 
leave, as well as a number of Catholic soldiers from the artil- 
lery battalion and the Canadian Rifles, attended the mission. 
Some of these Crimean veterans made their first communion, 
and others came to confession who had made their last con- 
fession before some one of the great battles of the Crimea. 
One of them, who was unable to get through the crowd after 
service, arrived after taps at his barracks, for which he was 
sent by the sergeant to the guard-house, and reported to the 
colonel the next morning. Colonel Monroe, the same officer 
who commanded the regiment in the Crimea, tore up the re- 
port and released the soldier from custody, saying that it 
was a shame to punish a man for going to the mission, which 
had done his regiment more good than any thing else that 
ever happened in Quebec. 

^V e had several invitations to give missions in the British 
Provinces, which it was necessary to decline, and, after taking 
leave of Quebec, where we had received such unbounded 



186 MEMOIR OF 

kindness and attention, both from the clergy and laity, we 
gave our last mission for the season in St. Peter's Church, 
Troy, then under the care of Father Walworth. From Troy 
we returned to New York, where a small house had been 
rented for oin- use, near the site of our new religious house 
and church. 

During the summer of 1859, the work of collecting funds, 
by public contributions in churches, and private subscriptions, 
was continued, and the building, which was to serve as a re- 
ligious house, was erected ; a large portion of it being thrown 
into a commodious and tolerably spacious chapel, which could 
be used as a temporary parish church for some years, until 
circumstances would warrant the erection of a permanent 
church edifice. The corner-stone was laid by the archbishop, 
on Trinity Sunday, June 19, in presence of an immense 
concourse of people. On the 24:th of l^ovember, the Feast 
of St. John of the Cross, the house was blessed by the su- 
perior of the congregation, and taken possession of. The 
first Mass was said in it on the following day, in one of the 
rooms arranged as a private chapel. On the first Sunday of 
Advent, November 27, the chapel was blessed, and Solemn 
Mass celebrated in it by the Yicar-General of the diocese; and 
from this time commenced the double labors of both paro- 
chial and missionary duty. An accession to our small num- 
ber of one more priest, Father Tillotson, who had been pre- 
viously residing in England as a member of the Birmingham 
Oratory, enabled us to do this — an undertaking which would 
otherwise have been extremely diflScult.- Three of our num- 
ber, of whom F. Baker was generally one, could now be 
spared for the missions, leaving two in charge of the parish ; 
and by relieving one another occasionally, the labor was 
somewhat lightened. Within the next two years our num- 
ber was further increased by the accession of two others — 
one of whom, F. Walworth, had been for a long time the su- 
perior of our missionary band, and now rejoined it, after 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 187 

a short interval, in which he had been fulfilling parochial 
duty as pastor of St. Peter's Church, Troy. Strengthened 
by these accessions, we were enabled, while our number re- 
mained undiminished by death, and all were blessed with 
the health and strength necessary to the performance of ac- 
tive labor, to carry on a continuous course of missions during 
seven years, dating from the time of our separate organiza- 
tion ; and at the same time to bestow abundant care and at- 
tention on our continually increasing parish. Three of these 
missions were given in the British Provinces — in the cathe^ 
drals cf St. John's, IsT. B., Halifax, and Kingston, Canada, 
respectively ; the remainder chiefly in J^ew England, New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, with a small number 
in the Western States. The details already given of previous 
missions are amply sufficient to give an idea of the mission- 
ary life of F. Baker, and it would be wearisome to continue 
them. These seven years, with the year immediately preced- 
ing them, comprise the most laborious and most fruitful por- 
tion of his too short priestly life. The number of missions 
given in this period of seven years was seventy-nine, with 
an aggregate of one hundred and sixty-six thousand commu- 
nions, the same nmnber with that of the missions of the pre- 
ceding seven years. Father Baker assisted at sixty-four of 
these missions, and at sixteen previously given, making a 
sum-total of eighty. The number of converts from Protestant- 
ism registered is two hundred and sixty-three, and the record 
is imperfect. Two of these were Protestant clergymen — one 
the rector of the Episcopal Church in Scranton, Pa. ; the other, 
the principal of the High School in Pittsfield, Mass. 

It only remains now to say a few words of the virtues ex- 
hibited by F. Baker, in his missionary, sacerdotal, and reli- 
gious life. Those high and noble virtues are best made known 
by a simple record in his deeds, and by the utterance which 
he has liimself bequeathed in his own sermons, in which the 
lofty standard of Christian perfection proposed to others is a 
simple reflection of Tvhat he actually practised in his life. 



188 MEMOIR OF 

Father Baker usually passed from seven to eiglit montlis 
of every year in the labors of the missionary life, and in those 
labors, as a member of a body of hard-working men, he was 
pre-eminent for the assiduity and perseverance with which 
he devoted himself to the most arduous and fatiguing occu- 
pations of his peculiar state. He usually said Mass at five 
o'clock, after which he went to the confessional till half-past 
seven. From nine until one, and from three until half-past 
six, he was in his confessional, rarely leaving it even for a mo- 
ment. At half-past seven, on those evenings when he was 
not to preach, he gave the instruction and recited the prayers 
which preceded the principal sermon. A considerable part 
of the remaining time was taken up by reciting his office and 
other private religious duties, leaving but very little for relax- 
ation, and none whatever for exercise, unless it was snatched 
at some brief interval, or required by the distance of the 
cliurch from the pastor's residence. During the first few days 
of each mission, the confessionals were not opened, and the 
preacher of the evening sermon was always freed from its 
labors in the afternoon. Frequently, however, those first 
days were devoted to a special mission given to the children 
of the congregation ; and F. Baker was always prompt and 
ready to fulfil this duty, which he did in the most admi- 
rable manner, adapting himself with a charming and win- 
ning grace and simplicity to the tender age and understand- 
ing of the little ones, and reciting with them beautiful forms 
of meditation and prayer, composed by himself, during the 
whole time of the Mass at which they received communion. 
The hardest part of the work of the mission, after the con- 
fessions began, was continued during from five to eleven 
successive days, according to the size of the congregation, and 
requiring from ten to twelve hours of constant mental applica- 
tion each day. Besides this necessary and ordinary work, per- 
formed with the most patient and unflagging assiduity, F. Ba- 
ker often employed all the remaining intervals of time — not 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 189 

taken up by meals and sleep — in instructing adult Catholics 
who had never been prepared for the sacraments, and in in- 
structing and receiving converts. Wherever there was any 
work of charity to be done, he undertook it quietly, promptly, 
and cheerfully, always ready to spare others, and willing to 
relieve them by assuming their duties when they were ex- 
hausted or unwell, seldom asking to be relieved himself. It 
was never necessary to remind F. Baker of his duty, much 
less to give him any positive command. During a long course 
of missions, in which I was superior, wdth F. Baker as my 
constant companion and my associate in preaching the 
mission sermons, and one other long-tried companion as the 
preacher of the catechetical instructions, I remember, with 
peculiar satisfaction, how perfect was the harmony with 
which we co-operated with one another, without the least ne- 
cessity of any exercise of authority, or any disagreement of 
moment. 

To understand fully how arduous was the work which F. 
Baker performed, it must be considered that not only was 
his mind and his whole moral nature taxed to the utmost by 
the continued effort necessary in order to fulfil his duty as a 
preacher and confessor, but that it was done under circum- 
stances most unfavorable to health, shut up in crowded, ill- 
ventilated rooms, pressed upon by impatient throngs, forced 
to strain the vocal organs to the utmost in large churches 
crowded with dense masses of people, and often obliged to 
pass suddenly from an overheated and stifling atmosphere 
into an intensely cold or damp air, and always obliged to 
work, for several hours in the morning, fasting. Such a life 
is a very severe strain upon one who has only the ordinary 
American constitution, especially if his temperament is deli- 
cate and unaccustomed to hardship in early life. The amount 
of work which F. Baker performed was not equal to that 
which many European missionaries are able to endure, espe- 
cially those who have an unusually robust constitution. 



190 MEMOIR OF 

But it was greater than that which St. Alphonsu-s himself re- 
quired of the missionaries who were under his own personal 
direction. The average duration of a career of continuous 
missionary labor in Europe is only ten years, and it is there- 
fore not surprising that F. Baker was able to continue such 
constant and arduous exertions, with the other duties which 
devolved on him during the intervals of missions, for no 
longer a period than eight years. 

At least as far back as the year 1861^ he began to suffer 
from a malady of the throat, and to find the effort of preach- 
ing painful. Nevertheless, he continued to perform his full 
share of this duty until within a year before his death. Oc- 
casionally it would be necessary to relieve him of some of 
his sermons ; and on the last mission which we gave together, 
which was in St. Jameses Church, Salem, Massachusetts, he 
asked to be relieved altogether both from the sermons and the 
short instructions which precede them. This mission was 
given during the month of January, 1865. F. Baker assisted 
at two other missions after this^ one at Archbaldj in Pennsyl- 
vania, and the other at Birmingham, Connecticut, at each of 
which he preached four sermons. His last mission sermon 
was preached^ February 18, 1865, six weeks before his death ; 
which occurred on the last day of the next mission but one, 
given at Clifton, Staten Island— twelve years from the time 
of his receiving his fii^t communion at the mission in the 
Cathedral of Baltimore. 

In the discharge of the duties allotted to him in the parish, 
F. Baker labored with the same zeal and assiduity as he did 
in the missions. He was particularly charged with the care 
of the altar and the divine service in the church, for which 
his thoroughly sacerdotal spirit, his exquisite taste, and his 
complete acquaintance with the rubrics and the details of 
ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies, gave him a special fitness. 
He took unwearied pains and care in providing vestments 
and ornaments, preaerving the sanctuary an,d all appertain- 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKRR. 191 

ing to it in order and neatness, decorating the clmrcsh for 
great festivals^ training up the boys who served at the altar, 
and directing the manner of performing the divine offices. 
This minute and exact attention to the beauty and propriety 
of the sax'red ceremonies of the Church, sprang from a deep, 
inward principle of devotion and love to our Lord present in 
the Blessed Sacrament, to His Blessed Mother, to the saints, 
and to the mysteries of the Christian Faith, symbolized by the 
outward forms of religion. In the performance of his sacer- 
dotal functions, he was a model of dignity, grace, and piety. 
He loved his duties, and was completely absorbed in his 
priestly office. The august Sacrifice and Sacrament of the 
Altar was his life and joy ; and there he derived those graces 
and virtues which produced their choice and precious fruits 
in his character and conduct. 

As a preacher of the Divine Word, he excelled equally. 
His parochial sermons were even superior to those which he 
preached on the mission. He could prepare himself more 
quietly; the exertion was not so tasking to his physical 
strength, and suited better the tone of his mind, which made 
it more pleasing and easy for him to fulfil these ordinary 
pastoral ministrations than to address great crowds of people, 
on occasions requiring a more vehement style of oratory. 
His published sermons will enable the reader to judge of his 
merit as a preacher, although their effect was greatly increased 
by the impression produced by his personal appearance and 
attitude^ and the charm of his voice and intonations. One 
striking feature of his sermons was the abundance and feli- 
city of his quotations from Holy Scripture. Frequent read- 
ing and meditation of the inspired books had saturated his 
mind with their influence, and the apposite texts which were 
suitable for his theme appeared to flow from his lips without 
an effort. Another characteristic of his preaching was, that 
it appealed almost exclusively to the reason, and through the 
reason to the will and conscience. His continual aim w^aa 



192 MEMOIR OF 

to inculcate conscientiousness, obedience to tlie law of Goo 
the fulfilment of the great duties of life, and a faithful 
correspondence to the divine grace. He never lost sight 
of this great end in his missionary or parochial sermons, but 
always directed his aim to bring sinners to a renunciation of 
sin, and a fixed purpose of living always in the grace of 
God, and to bring good Christians to a high standard of 
practical perfection and solid virtue. For deep speculations 
in theology and oratorical display, he had not the slightest 
inclination. He never desired to preach on unusual occasions 
or topics, but, on the contrary, had an unconquerable repug- 
nance to appear in the pulpit, except where the sole object 
was to preach the gospel with apostolic simplicity, for the 
single end of the edification of the people. He was not at 
all conscious of his own superiority as a preacher, and ne^er 
gave his sermons for publication without reluctance, or from 
any other motive than deference to the judgment of his 
superior and his brethren. He loved and sought the shade 
from a true and profound humility, without the shghtest 
desire for applause or reputation. His manner was earnest 
and grave ; at times, when the subject and occasion required it, 
even vehement; but equable and sustained throughout his 
discourse, without rising to any sudden or powerful outbursts 
of eloquence. On ordinary occasions it had a calm and per- 
suasive force ; enlivened with a certain pure and lofty poetic 
sentiment, which blended with the prevailing argumentative 
strain of his thought, pleasing the imagination just enough 
to facilitate the access of the truth he was teaching to the 
reason and conscience, without weakening its power, or dis- 
tracting the mind from the main point. He never produced 
those startling efiects upon his audience which are sometimes 
witnessed during a mission, by an appeal to their feelings ; 
but he invariably made a profound impression, which mani- 
fested itself in the deep and fixed attention with which he 
held them chained and captivated jfrom the first to the last 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 198 

word he uttered. His eloquence was like the still, strong 
current of a deep and placid river, sometimes swollen in vol- 
ume and force, and sometimes subsiding to a more tranquil 
and gentle flow ; but never deviating from a straight course, 
and seldom rushing with the violence of a torrent. 

In his more intimate and personal relations with his peni- 
tents, with the sick and afilicted whom he visited, or who 
came to him for counsel, and with others who sought instruc- 
tion, advice, or sympathy from him as a priestly director, F. 
Baker was a faithful copy of the charity and suavity of his 
special patron — St. Francis de Sales. Pure and holy as he 
was himself, he was compassionate and indulgent to the most 
frail and sinful souls ; and, without ever relaxing the uncom- 
promising strictness of Christian principle, or mitigating his 
severe denunciations of sin, he was free from all rigorism 
toward the penitent who sought to rise from his sins by his 
aid. This benignity and charity attracted to him a great 
number of persons who were in peculiar difficulties and 
troubles, some of whom had never had courage to go to any 
one else. He spaced no pains and trouble to help them, and 
his patience was inexhaustible. With the sick and dying he 
took unusual pains, visiting them frequently, and often aiding 
them to receive the sacraments devoutly by reciting prayers 
with them from some appropriate book of devotion. He recon- 
ciled a number to the Church who had been drawn away from 
their religion, and was particularly successful in bringing to 
the fold of Christ those who were without. The tokens of 
affection, gratitude, and sorrow which were given by great 
numbers at his death, were proofs how much he had endeared 
himself to all with whom he came in contact, and how irrep- 
arable they felt his loss to be. 

Of F. Baker's religious character it would be difficult to 
say much, in addition to the portraiture of him which has 
been given in the foregoing sketch of his life. It presented 
no salient or c^triking points to be seized on and particularly 



194 MEMOIR OF 

described. Its great beauty consisted in its quiet, equnble 
constancy and harmony. He had that evenly balanced 
temperament ascribed to St. Charles Borromeo by his biogra- 
phers, and regarded as the most favorable to virtue. He had 
no favorite books of devotion, no special practices of piety or 
austerity, no inclination for the study of the higher mystic 
theology, no unusual diflSculties or temptations, no deep 
mental struggles, no scruples, no marked periods of spiritual 
crisis and change after his conversion to the Catholic Church — 
nothing extraordinary, except an extraordinary fidelity and 
constancy in ordinary duties and exercises, and extraordinary 
conscientiousness and purity of life. He was detached from 
the world, and from every selfish passion ; reserved to a re- 
markable degree, without the faintest tinge of melancholy or 
moroseness ; collected within himself and in God at all times ; 
serene and tranquil of spirit; simple, abstemious, and exact in 
his habits ; with his whole heart in his convent, his cell, his 
duties, and his religious exercises. 

The character of F. Baker was very much developed dur- 
ing the later years of his life. That passive, quiescent disposi- 
tion which characterized him in his earlier career, gave place 
to greater decision and energy. He acquired by action a more 
self-poised and determined judgment, greater self-reliance, 
and a more marked individuality. He was no longer swayed 
and led by the opinions of others, except so far as duty re- 
quired him to obey, or his own reason was convinced. The 
almost feminine delicacy and refinement which he had in 
youth was hardened into a robust and manly vigor, as it is 
with a softly-nurtured young soldier after a long campaign 
He exhibited also a gayety of temper, a liveliness in con 
versation, and often a rich and exuberant humor and play- 
fulness, especially in depicting the variety of strange and 
amusing characters and scenes with which he came in con- 
tact by mixing with all classes of men, which had remained 
completely latent in his earlier character, before it was 



REV. FRANCIS A. BAKER. 195 

warmed and expanded by the genial influence of the Catho- 
fic religion. No one could have been a more delightful 
companion on the mission, during the intervals of rest and 
relaxation, than he vs^as ; and he entered into the enjoyment 
of the occasional recreations thrown in his way in traveling 
with the zest of a schoolboy on a holiday. For company he 
had no taste, and he could not be induced to undertake any 
jaunt or excursion for mere pleasure. During the summer- 
months he would never go into the country, even for the 
sake of recruiting his health, but remained during the hot- 
test months at home, where he found the truest happiness,^ 
pursuing the even tenor of his ordinary occupations. A 
beautiful character ! A rare specimen of the most perfect hu^ 
man nature, elevated and sanctified by divine grace, and 
clothed with a bodily form which was the exact expression of 
the inhabiting soul ! To describe it is impossible. Those 
who knew it by personal acquaintance will say, without 
exception, that the attempt I have made is completely in- 
adequate, and, like an unsuccessful portrait, reproduces but a 
dim and indistinct image of the original. I do not mean to 
say that F. Baker was a perfectly faultless character, or that 
he was without sin. Of those faults, however, which are 
apparent to human eyes in the exterior conduct, he had b"t 
few, and those slight and venial. 

Nothing now remains but to describe the closing scene of F. 
Baker's life. I have already mentioned that his constitution 
had shown symptoms of giving way under the fatigues of his 
missionary labors. Nevertheless, he still co^atinued in the 
constant and active discharge of his priestly duties, and no 
solicitude in regard to his health w^ felt by any of his 
brethren, with whom these periods of physical infirmity wera 
an ordinary occurrence. On one Sunday, a few weeks before 
his death, his strength failed him while he was singing High 
Mass, and he was obliged to continue it in a low voice. Ho 
was arlso unable to continue the abstinence of Lent, and was 



196 MEMOIR OP 

obliged to ask for a dispensation, wWcli I believe never oc* 
eiirred with him before. His appearance was pale and languid, 
and tlie fulfilment of his duties evidently cost him an effort. 
We had been accustomed to sing together two of the three 
parts of the Passion on Palm Sunday, ever since the church 
had been opened ; but, in making arrangements for the services 
of the Holy Week for this year, he remarked that we would 
be obliged to omit singing the Passion as usual. He had 
marked himself, however, on the schedule of oflSces which 
was posted up in the library, to preach both on Passion Sun- 
day and Palm Sunday. His last Sunday sermon was preached 
on the Second Sunday of Lent, March 12. The subject was 
*' Heaven." The Wednesday evening following, he volun- 
teered to preach in the place of one of his brethren who was 
unwell, about an hour before the service commenced, and 
left the supper-table to prepare himself. He took for the 
emergency the sermon which he had first preached as a mis- 
sionary, on " The Necessity of Salvation ;" and this was the 
last regular discourse which he delivered. On the following 
Sunday, after Vespers, he gave a short conference to the Rosary 
Society ; and after this his voice was never heard again in ex- 
hortation or instruction. About this time, there were several 
cases of typhus fever in the parish, and F. Baker had in some 
way imbibed the poison, to which his delicate state of health 
rendered him peculiarly susceptible. On the Fourth Sunday 
of Lent, March 26, the first symptoms of illness showed 
themselves. On the preceding evening he heard confessions 
as usual, until about nine o'clock, after which he came to the 
room of one of the fathers and made his own confession, as 
he did habitually every week. The next morning he said 
Mass for the last time, at half-past eight, for the children of 
the Sunday-school. As I passed his door at half-past ten, to 
go down to High Mass, he met me in the corridor, and re- 
marked that he felt too sick to go down to the sanctuary. 
From this time he came no more again to the table or the rec- 



KEV. FRANCIS A. BAKER 197 

-eation of the community, but kept his room. Nothing was 
thought of his indisposition, and it was by accident that his 
physician, who dined that day with the community, saw him 
and prescribed for him in the afternoon. The next day three 
of the fathers left the house for a mission, and bade hin: 
good-by as usual, without a thought of anxiety on either 
side. F. Baker remained on Sunday and Monday in 
the same state, dressing himself every morning, and sit- 
ting up at intervals, but usually lying on the bed, and 
occupying himself about some matters of business. He wrote 
several notes, and dictated others, some concerning the articles 
he had ordered for the sanctuary, and others concerning 
some sick persons or penitents for whom he had a special 
care. During this time, no symptoms of typhus had ap- 
peared, but his complaint appeared to be a slight attack of 
pneumonia. On Monday evening he went down by himself 
to the bath-room and took a hot bath, after which he kept 
his bed entirel}^ The superior of the house, who was engaged 
in the mission on Staten Island, came every day to visit him, 
and had already detected an incipient tendency to delirium, 
which awakened in his mind an anxiety, which, however, was 
not shared by any one else. On Wednesday, however, ah 
though he retained control over his faculties, his brain began 
evidently to show a state of morbid excitability. He re- 
marked that the bells of the house had a strange sound, and 
fancied that his breathing and pulsations were all set to a 
regular rhythmical measure, and gave out musical sounds. 
When he was alone and his eyes shut, he said that a brilliant 
array of figures continually passed before him, and that he 
seemed to be harried away by a rapid motion like that of a 
railway carriage. During that evening he was more deci- 
dedly wandering in his mind, although he became quiet, and 
slept nearly all night. On Thursday morning the poison of 
typhus had filled his brain completely, and he lay in a dull, 
Btupid state, unconscious of what was said to him, and inca* 



198 MEMOIR OF 

pable of littering a rational word. This gave place after a 
time to a more violent form of delirium, dm^ing which he 
talked incessantly in an incoherent manner, and could with 
difficulty be kept in a quiet position or induced to swallow 
any nourishment or medicine. On Friday morning the dan- 
ger of a fatal termination was evident, as the disease con- 
tinued to progress, and the symptoms of pneumonia were also 
aggravated. The superior of the house was sent for, and 
came over in the afternoon. Dr. Yan Buren and Dr. Clarke, 
two of the most eminent physicians in town, were called in 
for consultation by Dr. Hewit, the attending physician, and 
information of F. Baker's illness was sent to his sister, who 
came immediately from Baltimore to see him. On Saturday 
evening the typhus fever had spent its violence, reason re- 
turned, and from this time F. Baker remained in a weak but 
tranquil state until his departure. He had been removed 
from his own room to the library, a large and Siirj apart- 
ment, where every thing about him was arranged in a neat, 
orderly, and cheerful manner, and he was attended and care- 
fully watched night and day by his physician, his brethren, 
and his nurse. The violence of his fever had prostrated his 
strength so completely, that he was unable to resist the severe 
attack of pneumonia which accompanied it, and which medi- 
cal skill and care were unable to subdue. The feeble vital 
force which still remained gradually subsided during the 
next three days, under the progress of this disease, although 
liis friends continued to hope against all appearances for his 
recovery, and seemed almost to take it for granted that God 
would surely hear their prayers and spare his life. During 
all this time he was rational and collected, recognising all 
his friends, but unable to speak more than a few brief sen- 
tences that were connected and intelligible. He desired his 
sister to remain with him, and she did so during a great por- 
tion of the time. He expressed his perfect willingness and 
^^adiness to die, and made an effort to repeat audibly 



REV. FRAKOIS A. BAKER. 199 

como prayers, but without success. He manifested his 
desire for absohition by signs, and it was given to 
him., together with the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, 
on Sunday. On Tuesday, the Holy Viaticum, for which 
he had asked, was given him, at about half-past ten in 
the morning. He received it with perfect consciousness, 
and remained quiet, free from pain, and without becoming 
perceptibly worse, until one. After the fathers had gone 
down to dinner, he asked his nurse for his cap, which was 
brought to him and placed in his hand. He then asked for 
his habit, and said he would dress and go down to dinner 
with the community. Soon after, a change was observed in 
him by the watchful eye of the father who had been his 
bosom friend during their common missionary career, and 
who had passed so many hours of the day and night by his 
bedside during his sickness with more than the devotion of a 
brother; and several of his particular friends were sent for, 
that they might see him once more before he died. The two 
fathers who were at home, his physician, his only and be- 
loved sister, a lady who had been his chief aid in the care of 
the sanctuary, and another, who was one of his converts, 
surrounded his bedside, where he lay, the picture of placid 
repose and holy calm, quietly, gently, and imperceptibly 
breathing his last, until four o'clock, when his spirit passed 
away to God, without a struggle cr a sign of agony, leaving 
his countenance unruffled, and his form as composed as a 
statue. Those who saw him after death have said that, 
about an hour after his departure, his appearance was most 
beautiful, as he lay just dressed in his sacerdotal vestments, 
his majestic and finely chiselled brow and features as yet 
untouched by the finger of decay. The vestments in which F. 
Baker was dressed had been prepared by himself only three 
weeks before, that they might be ready in case of the death 
of one of the community. His body was placed in a metallic 
case, enclosed in a rosewood coffin, and laid in state in the 



200 MEMOIR OF 

church. These arrangements were not completed until iatc 
in the i-ight, and the people did not therefore begin to visit 
the sacred remains until the next morning ; from which time 
until the sepulture, crowds of the faithful were coming to the 
church during every hour, both of the day and the night. 
Eequiem Masses were said by all the priests in the house on 
Wednesday and Thursday. The mission at Staten Island 
closed on Tuesday evening. The fathers who were there 
were not made acquainted with the extreme danger of F. 
Baker, and the intelligence of his death was not sent to them 
until Wednesday morning, when their labors were all com- 
pleted. They returned home to find the body of their late 
companion lying in the church, and the household and parish 
overwhelmed with sorrow. Usually, in a religious commu- 
nity, the death of a member is taken very much as the loss of 
a soldier is regarded by his comrades, schooled as they are to 
control their feelings, and to be ready at any moment to ex- 
pose their lives in the discharge of their duty. But in a 
small band like ours, which had been through so many trials 
and vicissitudes in company, and where all the members had 
been continually in the most constant and intimate associa- 
tion with each other, it was impossible not to feel in the 
deepest and keenest manner the loss of one of our number, 
the first one called away during the fourteen years of a mis- 
sionary life. To an infant congregation like ours, the loss of 
a priest like F. Baker was truly irreparable. Besides this, 
each one felt that his loss as a friend and brother was a per- 
sonal grief equal to that of losing his nearest and dearest 
relative by the tie of blood. This sorrow was shared by the 
whole parish, by all his frien(^^, and by the faithful everywhere 
in the parishes where he had preached and labored. Many 
letters of sympathy and condolence were sent from all 
quarters, and not Catholics only, but numbers of others also, 
who had respected the virtues of the hoi}- Catholic priest, 
testified their regret at his death, and their sympathy with 



EEV. FKANCIS A. BAKER. 201 

our loss. The Rev. Dr. Osgood, a distinguislied Unitariar4 
clergyman of New York, sent a small painting representing a 
bouquet of various kinds of lilies, as amemori.J of respect, 
in the name of his congregation, accompanied by a very kind 
note. Several other Protestant clergymen were present at 
the funeral services ; and, indeed, the manifestations of respect 
for F. Baker's memory were universal. 

The funeral obsequie* were of necessity accelerated more 
than his friends would have desired, so that few from distant 
places were able to attend them. A few intimate friends 
from Baltimore, and some clergymen jfrom places out of town, 
were, however, present ; a large number of the clergy of New 
York and its vicinity ; and as great a number of the faithful as 
the church could contain. The funeral was on Thursday in 
Passion Week, April 6, two days after the decease. The pre- 
vious Thursday was F. Baker's birthday, and the anniversary 
of his conversion to the Catholic Church also occurred within 
the week of his death and burial. He had just completed the 
forty-fifth year of his age, and was in the ninth year of his priest- 
hood. The following Sunday was the twelfth anniversary of his 
formal reconciliation to the Church, in the chapel of the Sisters 
of Charity, in Baltimore. Early on Thursday morning, four 
private Masses of Requiem were said for the repose of his soul 
in the church. At the usual hour for High Mass on Sundays, 
a solemn Mass of Requiem was celebrated by the superior of 
the house, in presence of the Archbishop, who performed the 
closing rite of absolution, and a short funeral discourse was 
preached. The coflSn was ornamented with the sacerdotal 
vestments, the chalice, and the missionary crucifix of the 
deceased, and covered with wreaths of flowers. The altar 
was deeply draped in mourning, and F. Baker's confessional 
was also similarly draped. Never did these exterior symbols 
indicate a mpre sincere and universal sorrow on the part of 
all who participated in them. It was a very difiacult task to 
summon up sntificient fortitude to perform these last sad rites. 



202 MEMOIR OF 

The voice of tlie celebrant was interrupted by his tears ; the 
6ub-deacon faltered as he sang the elevating and comforting 
words of the Epistle ; the choir-boys showed in their candid 
and ingenuous faces their sorrow for the one who had trained 
them up in the sanctuary ; the choir, composed, not of profes- 
sional singers, but of members of the congregation, undertook 
their solemn task with trembling ; every countenance was sad 
and every eye moistened, in the assefhblage of the clergy who 
sat in white-robed ranks nearest the sanctuary, and of the 
laity who filled the church. I had the last duty of friendship 
to perform, in preaching the funeral sermon; and the wish to 
do full justice to F. Baker, and to satisfy the eager desire of 
all present to hear something of his life, enabled me to fulfil 
this duty with composure, and restrain the tide of emotion 
which I saw swelling all around me, quieted only by the hal- 
lowing and tranquillizing influence of the sacred rites of the 
Church, and the high, celestial hope inspired by the contem- 
plation of a life so noble and a death so holy. The music 
was in the sweet, plaintive, solemn style of the true ecclesi- 
astical chant ; all the means of celebrating the holy rites of 
the obsequies had been prepared by F. Baker's own pious and 
careful hand ; his own spirit seemed to hover over the spot, 
and a divine consolation stole gently over all. Sad as it is, 
there is nothing so beautiful, so soothing, so elevating to the 
soul, as the funeral of a holy priest, who has achieved his 
course and attained the crown of his labors. Many of those 
who were present remained for a long time after the ser- 
vice was completed, and some were still found there unwilling 
to leave the spot, at nightfall. The remains were taken from 
the church to St. Patrick's Cathedral, escorted by a band of 
young men, and followed by a train of carriages, and by others 
on foot, although it rained heavily ; the Vicar-General recited 
the concluding prayers of the ritual ; the cofiin was placed in 
the episcopal vault next to that of the late archbishop ; a 
few wreaths of flowers were placed upon it, the entran.ce was 



EEY. FRANCIS A, BAKER. 203 

closed, and all withdrew ; leading the eartlil)' form of the 
departed to the silent repose of the tomb. 

For some days after, a portion of the mourning drapery- 
was left on the altar, and requiems continued to be offered 
by all the priests of the community. Many Masses were 
also said by other priests in various parts of the country^ 
and prayers offered by the people, although the common 
sentiment of all was, that the one for whom they were offered 
was already among the blessed in heaven. On Saturday 
evening, as we all went to our confessionals, and a large con- 
gregation of people was assembled in the church, preparing 
for their Easter duty, a peculiarly holy calm seemed to per- 
vade the spot. The people were hushed and still, unusually 
intent upon their devotions. Tlie penitents of F. Baker 
looked with sadness upon the place where, just two weeks be- 
fore, he had sat for the last time in the tribunal of penance, 
and came weeping to some one of the other fathers to request 
him to take the direction of their consciences. It was a sad 
Holy Week; and a difficult task to us, wearied with labor, and 
some with watching, oppressed with a grief which time and 
repose had not yet diminished, to fulfil the arduous duties 
of the season. Our greatest consolation was in the sympathy 
manifested by our people, and in the proof they gave of the 
love and gratitude which our labors had awakened in their 
hearts. Easter Sunday came ; the altar was superbly decorated 
with the choicest flowers of the season, the triumphant chant 
of the Church resounded as usual ; but all felt that the one 
whose presence in the sanctuary and whose eloquent voice 
had given the day one of its greatest charms, was gone for- 
ever ; and besides, the gloom of the great crime committed 
on Good Friday had overspread the whole nation, and the 
drapery of universal mourning had turned the city into one 
great necropolis. The admirable pastoral letter of the arch- 
bishop on the assassination of the President was read in all 
the churches, giving eloquent expression to the indigjiation 



204 HEMOIK OF 

and grief which oppressed all Clnistian and all honest 
and just hearts ; and never was there seen an Easter more sad 
and mournful, more like a day of miusiial humiliation and 
sorrow, than that Easter Sunday ; which had been anticipated 
as a day of peculiar joy and thanksgiving for the cessation 
of bloody war and the restoration of peace* 

It is in just such times as these, however, that we appre- 
ciate most fully the strength and support which is given us 
by our holy faith, the Divine Sacrament of the Altar, and the 
grace of God, and that those who have given themselves to 
a religious life learn the inestimable blessing of their vocation, 
which raises them above all private and all public tribulation. 
A few days brought back serenity and cheerfulness to our 
little community, and we took new courage from the blessed 
death of our companion, closing so beautifully his holy life, 
to resume quietly and resolutely our ordinary duties, and to 
rely more completely on the providence of God ; trusting that 
we had gained an advocate in heaven, and hoping to perse- 
vere like him to the end. His course was short, and his re* 
Ward speedily gained, What a happiness for him that he 
listened to the voice of God ; and, as his day was declining to 
its close, though he knew it not, gathered up his strength and 
courage to leave all and run that brief and swift race, which 
in later years gained for him the brilliant and unfading 
crown of a true and faithful priest of Jesus Christ, who had 
brought thousands of souls into the way of justice; and had 
practised himself that Christian perfection which he preached 
to others I 

There must be many young men equally gifted, and fitted 
to accomplish an equally apostolic work, to whom God has 
given the oame vocation. "What hidden consequences were 
involved in the result of that struggle and deliberation which 
was the crisis of grace in the life of Francis Baker ! What 
a loss to himself and to the Church of God, if he had proved 
cowardly and unfaithful! The simple question before his 



n^V, FKANCl^ A. SAKeK. 205 

.mind was one of personal obedience to the comraaiiclment 
of Christ to arise and follow Him. But because of his obe- 
dience, God chose him to be the instrument of an amount oi 
good to others which Would be sufficient to enrich with merit 
a priesthood of fifty years* The immediate fruits of his own 
.abors in preaching the woM of God and administering Ills 
sacraments can never perish. The fruits of his example and his 
teaching will^ I trust, contintle to multiply and increase after 
his death in rich abundance. If the blessing of God perpetu- 
ates and extends the congregation which he aided in forming, 
and which, so far as we can see, could not have been estab- 
lished without him, his character and spirit will be perpetuated 
in those who will for all time venerate him as a spiritual father, 
and imitate him as one of their most perfect models* If he is to 
have no imitators and no successors, it will be because God can 
find none among our choice and gifted youth, who have enough 
of sincerity, generosity, and the epirit of self-sacrifice, to obey 
the inspirations of His Divine Spirit, and consecrate themselves 
to His glory and the good of their fellow-men. The need is 
pressing, the career is glorious and inviting, and the vocation 
of God will not be wanting. There is no hope for religion, 
except in the multiplication of priests animated with the 
apostolic spirit. If the example of Francis Baker enkindles 
the spirit of emulation in some generous youthful hearts ; and 
encourages some timid, fearful sottls who are vacillating 
between the Church of God and the interests of this world, 
to imitate his fidelity to the voice of conscience ; the end I 
have had in view will be accomplished. If not, it will stand 
as a perpetual reproach to a frivolous and unworthy gen-- 
eration, incapable of appreciating and imitating high Chris- 
tian virtue. And now I lay the last stone on this monument 
of one who was once the friend and bosom companion of my 
youth: afterwards my spiritual child; then my brother in the 
priesthood ; and who is now exalted to such a height abovg 
me that mj eye and my mind can no longer follow him. 



OCT 25 1901 



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